Refurbishment, 2 Newhams Row, Bermondsey

The brief for this project was to add three new storeys to the existing warehouse building. The building was constructed with load bearing masonry external walls, and an internal steel frame supporting in-situ concrete floors. Geotechnical investigations revealed the building to be founded on very poor ground, probably using piles to transfer loads to competent strata at some depth. As we had no knowledge of the nature of the piles, and any strengthening works would involve considerable expense, we adopted a load balancing system; carefully calculating existing loads on the various areas of foundations and trying to devise an additional superstructure that did not increase these loads.

The new upper floors comprise a lightweight steel frame supporting timber joists. External walls are also of lightweight construction using aluminium substructure and copper faced plywood cladding. In order to balance the additional self weight and imposed loading from the new storeys, we proposed the removal of the existing concrete floor slabs to the existing first floor. The remodelled building is actually marginally lighter than the original.

Architect Glas Architects