In pictures: from industrial warehouse to modern mixed-use space
Buckley Gray Yeoman has retrofitted a 200-year-old factory in London using circular economy principles and sustainable innovations.
The renovation of 27 Eccleston Place in central London – known as the Ice Factory – has breathed new life into a former industrial building to create 28,900 sq ft of workspace, retail space and two restaurants. It completes Buckley Gray Yeoman’s two-stage masterplan of Eccleston Yards in London’s Belgravia Conservation Area, close to rows of Grade II-listed Regency and Victorian houses.
It is also a shining example of how a retrofit project can transform old buildings to create new destinations and public spaces.
27 Eccleston Place was built in 1830 for Shingleton’s Ice Company and in its near 200-year history has been used as a coachworks, a power station and most recently, a garage. Ice Factory sits to the north of the Eccleston Yards courtyard and has been phased to follow the first part of the redevelopment. The scheme has created a new (third) pedestrian route into Eccleston Yards.
BGY’s design removed the pitched roof of the building, inserting a new structure within the retained fabric to extend the building upwards, adding two new floors with a step down in height towards the terraced houses on Ebury Street. The new sawtooth roofline with ribbon lights maximises natural light and references the site’s industrial history.
BGY specified rooftop-mounted photovoltaic panels and an all-electric heating and cooling system with 100% green energy procurement.
Tonal difference
The added two storeys are clad in brick with a subtle tonal difference marking the distinction between old and new. Where windows and other apertures on the existing building have been infilled, the same tonal difference marks where work has taken place and record the modifications to the building.
“We borrowed this honest approach to ‘layering’ for the new ‘brick’ addition, very much informed by the notion of celebrating the new intervention without losing the reference to the building’s past,” said BGY architect Krystin Schwendel Smith. “A new brick insertion was conceived, ensuring the new extensions were sympathetic to the host building, with the new brick blend selected based around the tonal qualities of the host brick architecture.
The facade’s cast iron beams and columns which face onto Eccleston Yards have been retained, with the riveted ironwork repainted in red oxide paint. The existing arched openings have also been restored to provide entrances to the retail and office space.
The office element of the proposals was designed to achieve BREEAM Excellent and the retail element BREEAM Very Good. The project prioritised a circular economy by retaining the existing structure and reusing existing materials to reduce embodied carbon emissions, such as reclaimed raised access floors.
The circular economy approach was applied throughout construction to reduce material use and waste generation, including the use of low-impact materials such as Cemfree low-carbon cement to reduce embodied carbon.
