Glazed Rooftop: Refurbishment and Extension of a Derelict Property

The project is located on a triangular site where King’s Cross Road and Pentonville Road meet. The council, client and design team recognised the opportunity to deliver a project that not only created high-quality office space but also made a significant architectural addition to this prime site and busy surrounding area. Responding to this, HÛT created a glass-clad rooftop pavilion formed from a highly reflective material (supplied by IQ Glass) that follows a faceted curve. The 6,200 sq ft project has four floors of office space above two levels designed for a restaurant tenant.

Architects: HÛT
Location: Pentonville Road, London, UK

The structure and materiality on the rooftop addition have been designed to create a surface that changes appearance depending on the angle it is viewed from, animating views of the building. At night, the rooftop structure adds a sense of drama, with curved coffer lighting illuminating the interior and engaging passers-by.

Andrew Whiting, director at HÛT, said: “For a building occupying such a prominent site, it had very little street presence and we saw this project as an opportunity to redefine the building’s relationship to its surroundings whilst creating high-quality office space. The architectural presence of the rooftop pavilion re-brands a building that previously lacked any kind of distinct identity. The addition of the economic glazed rooftop structure has really helped generate interest in the development and has played a major part in the building achieving impressive rental rates.”

As well as adding an additional floor to the rooftop, HÛT’s design maximises the amount of space of the existing building whilst also making the most of the views from this triple aspect structure.

Further information:
www.hutarchitecture.com

The brick skin of the existing building was retained whilst all internal spaces were totally re-structured and a new steel frame for the building was inserted. This allowed for a new internal layout, which included a new core, creating the largest possible floorplates whilst still preserving high-quality circulation spaces. The existing neglected basement was converted into usable space and linked to the ground floor restaurant unit, creating 800 sq ft of additional space.