Client: Workspace Group
Location: Southwark, London, SE1
Size: 70,000 sqft
Value: £7,250,000
Contractor: HG Construction
Frost were asked by Workspace to extend and refurbish the building on Union St. The site presented several difficulties including the adjacent railway, the Underground below and a very tight site together with the practical issues of extending an occupied building.
An additional 23,000 sqft of lettable space was added with 2 additional floors on the roof and a 5 storey side extension in the existing loading bay. The new ground floor area of the side extension is now the new entrance to the building, incorporating café, reception, meeting room, admin facilities and informal co-working space for Club Workspace.
The reception and café area was designed to have an informal, playful feel, with raw materials such as expanded mesh panels, expressed structure and exposed services mixed with polished surfaces such as a mirrored wall and the polyester resin lacquered ply panels which line the perimeter of the space.
This playful approach was followed through into the refurbishment of the common parts including corridors incorporating inset yellow rubber doormats and large scale dot matrix artwork lining the walls. The bespoke signage around the entrance doors incorporates backlit perforated aluminium panels which reveal the name of the building giving the building a dynamic presence at night.
Images by Jocelyn Low