Brunel Building
Wednesday 26 June 2019
Andrew Summers words and photos
Lynne Bryant photos
The Architecture Club members
Simon Silver of Derwent London and Keith Priest of Fletcher Priest Architects welcomed The Architecture Club to this special pre-opening tour of their newest building in London, Brunel Building. So named to resonate with the engineering feats of the Great Western Railway, Paddington Station and the Grand Union Canal which flows past the building, the design brief was to be tough, robust, exciting and to speak of the railway age. It has been long in gestation with planning permission first granted in 2003, a period of uncertainty after the recession and a bold commitment 3 years ago to go ahead in a depressed market.
The building has 250,000 sq ft over 16 floors with a most striking external design of angular supports which create 3.5m high column-free space throughout while the shade from the structure allows large windows which give panoramic views from each floor. The industrial material palette celebrates stripped back, authentic materials including fair-faced concrete, saw-milled timber and light fittings salvaged from Eastern European power stations.
Admiring the wonderful spaces and materials, we were nevertheless concerned to hear of some of the fit-out plans being implemented by the high-profile tenants for the building which includes Sony, Premier League and a hedge fund planning to face their walls with marble. Relief will come however from the sheltered gardens on 14thand 16th floors and from the Daisy Green café due to occupy the Ground Floor restaurant area opening on to the canal (they already have a Peter Blake designed barge moored opposite to which we all repaired for excellent drinks and canapés after the tour).
The stunning and innovative design by Fletcher Priest Architects, the high quality of finish and the location next to canal and station have all contributed to Derwent achieving rents well above average market prices and fully justifying their decision to go ahead three years ago.
I think Brunel would be happy to have his name associated with this landmark building.