10 Eastbourne Terrace, London, United Kingdom

10 Eastbourne Terrace is an 82,000ft² office redevelopment in Paddington, London. One of the most significant aspects of this office building is not immediately visible. Ground-source heating and cooling from 18 150m-deep boreholes provides 40% of the heating and cooling required by the building.

Eastbourne Terrace, opposite Paddington Station, was typical of its generation of 1960s office buildings. Sitting adjacent to the Bayswater conservation area, the rear of the building was transformed by substantially reducing the parking, replacing it with mature trees and shrubs to create a south-facing open space usable by office workers and local residents alike.

The new development needed to be sympathetic to the residential mews at the rear while maintaining a more formal façade on Eastbourne Terrace. The external glass cladding is conceived as a glass veil over the existing structural frame with a subtle opaque pattern to vary the transparency of the façade. Following consultations with local residents, a fully glazed cladding solution was developed with a matrix of silk-screened ceramic fritting to protect against solar gain and to reduce overlooking. The high-performance glass allows daylight to flood the office floors and maximises views.

A generous entrance bridge spanning the light well was introduced to draw the visitor into the reception. A backlit stretched ceiling and natural stone finishes on the floor and walls in the new reception provide simple detailing along with laminated fabric glass and American white oak timber veneer panels. The new WCs feature natural Pietra Serena stone and white glass cubicle partitions and, unusually for a modern office, are naturally lighted, rather than buried in the office interior.

Eastbourne Terrace sustainability

Sustainability has been central to the design of the redevelopment with the holistic concept of social, economic and environmental sustainability guiding many of the key decisions. 10 Eastbourne Terrace is rated ‘excellent’ by BREEAM. The reuse of an existing structural building frame saved 750,000kg of embodied CO2, compared with a newly constructed concrete structure. Grey water supplied by an on site artesian well is used to flush the toilets, substantially reducing the use of mains water. Generous cycle parking and shower facilities to promote travel other than by car have also been introduced.

The success of the project can be measured in the pre-letting of all floors prior to completion in a difficult market. The project has been used by Westminster as an exemplar and featured in their publicity promoting quality sustainable development within the borough.