Thames House

Commenced
Completed

2013

2024

TEAM

Architects: A-Zero Architects

Giles Bruce, Phillip Toyin, Mizue Katayama, Shoichi Sado, Maria Despina Stasi, Nicolas Tome

Structural Design: TALL Engineers / Entuitive Engineers

Contractor: Blero Construction ltd / BBC Construction

Photographs: Agnese Sanvito

London, UK

Adjacent to the Thames, this new build development is designed to capture specific views to London. The building is conceived as two parts, a lower brick base built from bricks harvested from the original building which sat on the site, and an upper cantilevered volume, which mediates between the scales of the adjacent buildings. The project references its context in form, but is distinct in the materiality of fibre cement tiles, flush glazing and integrated photovoltaic panels.

The site is sandwiched between low rising housing to the south, and a mock Tudor pub to the west. A detached dwelling that had existed on the site since the early 1900s had been completely overshadowed by a new development to the north. We questioned how a new development could get a view the view to the Thames, the Shard and the City, all obscured by the surrounding buildings. We hired a cherry picker to understand where the views were, and thee orientation a building would need to be to capture them.

Building integrated renewables

This project innovates around integration of renewables. The chamfering of the upper volume provided the optimal inclination and orientation for the integration of photovoltaics with the maximum available solar radiation incident on its surface. The size of the PV panels became the module around which the entire superstructure was organised – with rainscreen panels, rooflights, and PVs all aligned to this common grid. The PVs are estimated to generate 32.4 kWh/m2/annum, or around 31% of the Total Delivered Energy required.

Overheating

The south facing elevation, though optimal for PVs, posed a problem for overheating during the summer months. This can be generally addressed through natural ventilation, but a more robust solution was required to prepare for times when the occupants would leave - on work trips or long summer holidays. A series of timber louvres reflective to the outside were designed. The louvres can be installed and removed as required according to the season.

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When the client approach us in 2022, this property was derelict and had not been occupied in 10 years - there was evidence of arson and squatting. When we first visited it was Halloween and the house had been decorated by the community as the local haunted house – which was quite apt given its dilapidated condition.

The client’s brief was for the house to be brought back into use with the lowest carbon approach possible. Design decisions were a balance was between operational performance, embodied carbon, and the aim to preserve the architectural character of the original building – it had previously been a tenement, and the very quirky split staircase to was the only remaining feature of note.

The project has completely reinvented the building as a low carbon exemplar. Unfortunately, the area now lacks a haunted house for next Halloween.

Rotherhithe, London, UK