Charlotte Fernández
UKIMEA Press Office,Leeds
British Land and Oxford Properties have announced practical completion of The Leadenhall Building.
Standing 224 metres tall with 46 floors, this building provides the highest offices in the City of London.
Arup is working alongside architects Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and contractor Laing O’Rourke on this stunning new addition to the London skyline demonstrating state of the art construction and extraordinary craftsmanship.
The Leadenhall Building is an unashamedly ambitious exercise in architectural engineering. Furthermore, with approximately 85% assembled off site, this project has achieved unprecedented levels of pre-fabrication for a high rise structure in the UK.
An innovative, exposed steel braced “megaframe” structure placed outside the cladding wraps around the building’s tapering shape, a form driven by the need to maintain protected views to St Paul’s Cathedral whilst maximising development potential. The resulting asymmetric profile presented complex challenges for our structural engineers.
The external megaframe also avoids the need for a central structural core; therefore even the largest floors have no more than six internal columns creating multifunctional and flexible workspaces.
From its inception, the building has been designed to be highly energy efficient. A naturally ventilated triple glazed cladding system limits the amount of solar gain and heat loss passing through the building façade, whilst maximising the availability of natural daylight.
“The visibility of the engineering is a reflection of the architectural expression and at times it is almost impossible to decouple the two disciplines. As the building tapers, the ‘attic’ levels have been designed to incorporate generators, cooling towers, boilers, pipework and a myriad of other services into a diminishing footprint. The glazed attic is a visible expression of form and function working symbiotically.
Andrew Sedgwick, Project Director, Arup
Arup was appointed to provide structural and building services engineering, vertical transportation, acoustics, lighting and security design services.