Goswell Road, London

Currently on site, this project was initiated by the building owner asking us if we could find a way of increasing the floor area of his building, then being used for B1 light industrial and office use. The Edwardian structure comprised a steel frame, incorporation some cast iron columns, and floors in a patchwork of concrete filler joist or timber joist construction. The external walls were all of load bearing brick, extending down to form a full basement over half of the plan.

Initial studies revealed that by removing and replacing the concrete floor elements with much lighter timber, we could add three additional floors to the entire plan, with only rights of light restricting the building’s profile. The additional floors required that building regulations regarding limiting disproportionate collapse needed to be applied to the whole structure, resulting in new steel ties being inserted around the inside of the external walls. Careful load capacity assessment was required for the cast iron columns.

The existing basement was deepened and extended over the full plan, and together with the additional floors, the net floor area of the building has been more than doubled.

The project will be completed at the end of 2009.

Architect Richard Buck with Jean Oh Architects