TECHNICAL
constructionmanagermagazine.com
A WEIGHT OFF A KING’S CROSS MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT WAS THE FIRST PROJECT MANAGEMENT ROLE FOR BAM’S EMILY HOGGINS. LIVE RAIL TUNNELS, A UNIQUE ROOF DESIGN AND A PANDEMIC ENSURED IT POSED PLENTY OF CHALLENGES
Below: The building occupies a corner plot above live railway tunnels Right: 22 Handyside Street is built of lightweight concrete and steel
it needed to be super lightweight. Responding to these elements, Coffey Architects shifted the three-storey building diagonally. This helped balance the weight of the building while improving the orientation for heat gain, directional flow and outward views. But what this design and the position over tunnels also did was present technical challenges for BAM and Emily Hoggins, who oversaw the build in her first role as project manager. “It was built over three Network Rail tunnels – two of which were live – so we needed a specific construction methodology. The tunnels are Victorian brick built, so any product over them had to be lightweight,” she explains.
COFFEY ARCHITECTS
N1C, the brand new postcode for the regenerated King’s Cross, is welcoming its latest addition in the form of mixed-use development Q1 at 22 Handyside Street. This build is one of 50 new and refurbished buildings that make up the biggest mixed-use development in single ownership in central London
for over 150 years. Residents include Google and Universal Music – and Facebook is soon to move in. Built by BAM, Q1 offers 36,000 sq ft of office space with retail units on the ground floor. The commercial building sits above Network Rail’s three Gasworks Tunnels, which run 1m beneath it, on the corner of York Way and Handyside Street. Coffey Architects’ building design captures light cleverly but its shape was born out of the constraints of the tunnels. The building’s form is determined by three factors: the position of the sun, the site perimeter and the site’s structural grid. Sitting above Grade II-listed railway tunnels,
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