Canaletto Residential Tower / UNStudio

Canaletto Residential Tower / UNStudio - Image 2 of 19Canaletto Residential Tower / UNStudio - Interior Photography, Stairs, Windows, FacadeCanaletto Residential Tower / UNStudio - Exterior PhotographyCanaletto Residential Tower / UNStudio - Exterior PhotographyCanaletto Residential Tower / UNStudio - More Images+ 14

  • Architect In Charge: Ben van Berkel
  • Team Un Studio: Ben van Berkel, Wouter de Jonge with Imola Bérczi and Sander Versluis, Aurelie Hsiao, Wing Tang, Nanang Santoso, Derrick Diporedjo, Maud van Hees, Henk van Schuppen, Olivier Yebra, Jan Schellhoff, Fang Huan, Qiyao Li, Perrine Planché
  • Delivery Architect: Axis Architects
  • Mep Consultant, Fire Engineer, Acoustics: Hoare Lea
  • Façade Engineer: Buro Happold
  • Client Monitor & Employers Agent: Buro Four
  • Planning Consultant: Gerald Eve
  • Access Consultant: David Bonnett Associates
  • Wind Engineer: RWDI
  • Cdm Coordinator: E C Harris LLP
  • Cost Consultant: E C Harris LLP
  • Environmental Statement & Eia: URS/ Scott Wilson
  • Traffic & Services: SKM Colin Buchanan
  • Daylight & Sunlight & Overshadowing: eb7 chartered surveyors and environmental consultants
  • City: London
  • Country: United Kingdom
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Canaletto Residential Tower / UNStudio - Exterior Photography, Cityscape, Facade
© Hufton+Crow

Text description provided by the architects. The 22,000m2 Canaletto residential tower in London employs the concept of clustering several floors together to establish a group of ‘vertical communities’.

Offering waterside living, the 31-storey tower comprises studios, one and two-bedroom apartments, a variety of three bedrooms and one distinct penthouse with a full rooftop. Canaletto also includes shared amenities such as a swimming pool, health club, media room and resident’s club lounge with a terrace on the 24th floor 

Canaletto Residential Tower / UNStudio - Image 19 of 19
Diagram

UNStudio's design for the tower, which is located in the London borough of Islington, incorporates the remodeling of the facade, a streamlining of the building’s mass and a contrasting of scale and detail untypical of a residential tower. The facade for the Canaletto tower was designed to emphasise its residential character and to define a distinct ‘Islington’ response.

Ben van Berkel: “The City Road Tower distinguishes itself from buildings in the nearby financial district of the City through variation; through materials, through clusters, through a scale that is appropriate to city streets and through a facade that creates its own residential identity by means of a varied and heterogeneous elevation.”

Canaletto Residential Tower / UNStudio - Interior Photography, Living Room, Sofa, Table
© Eva Bloem

Clustering

In the design near and distant townscape views are enhanced through scale, detail, and material variation. The proposed building facade creates a modeled elevation in which clusters of adjacent floors are grouped together.

Canaletto Residential Tower / UNStudio - Interior Photography, Cityscape
© Eva Bloem

Ben van Berkel: ‘In a residential building, we want residents to really feel like they are part of a unique work of architecture, something that is identifiably theirs. This is why the design of Canaletto really emphasises this clustering of different floors – small communities that are visibly unique from other nearby towers.”

Canaletto Residential Tower / UNStudio - Image 16 of 19
Diagram

Contrasting materials are employed within each grouping, where the 'outer' smooth metallic element is complemented by an 'inner' use of textured materials. Throughout the building the cluster concept of the facade is designed to maximise levels of transparency and frame the views towards the sky, thereby lending the tower a softer and more nuanced silhouette.

Canaletto Residential Tower / UNStudio - Interior Photography, Stairs, Windows, Facade
© Hufton+Crow

Sustainability

The elevation additionally offers sustainability benefits. The surface modelling creates opportunities for shading, balancing good internal daylight and views with reduced heat gains. The articulation of the facade will additionally reduce wind down drafts and, in combination with canopy proposals at the base of the building, provide an improved pedestrian microclimate. 

Canaletto Residential Tower / UNStudio - Exterior Photography
© Hufton+Crow

Balconies

The modelling of the balconies within each grouped cluster lends variability to the facade and the living experience for the residents in the building. As outdoor spaces play a large role in the enjoyment of living environments, the creation of unique, sheltered spaces of high quality was a driver in early design development. The aspect of using both textured and smooth materials contrasts with the expected contemporariness of a typical high-rise metal construction and lends this facade a residential 'twist.' 

Canaletto Residential Tower / UNStudio - Image 17 of 19
Diagram

Ben van Berkel: “The detailing and contrasting of the materialisation of the façade and the balconies plays a key role in the identity of the building and is in fact borrowed from furniture design. This is an approach which we more typically apply to designs for smaller private houses, however following extensive research into the potential for extending durability and maintenance we were able to create unexpected material variations on a larger scale.”

Canaletto Residential Tower / UNStudio - Exterior Photography, Windows
© Hufton+Crow

Shared spaces and amenities

Outside of the privacy afforded by the 190 individual living units, the Canaletto tower caters for a variety of collective leisure activities by way of shared amenities where the residents can enjoy healthy leisure pursuits or relax in areas designed for gathering and socialising.

Canaletto Residential Tower / UNStudio - Image 2 of 19
© Hufton+Crow

A landscaped garden on Wharf Road provides access to the residential lobby, whilst the ground floor garden frames the entrance lobby and provides a green oasis off the busy City Road. A public restaurant will also be located at the base of the building on City Road.

Canaletto Residential Tower / UNStudio - Exterior Photography
© Hufton+Crow

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Project location

Address:London, United Kingdom

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Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "Canaletto Residential Tower / UNStudio" 08 Nov 2017. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/883266/canaletto-residential-tower-unstudio> ISSN 0719-8884

© Hufton+Crow

UNStudio 新作:垂直社区 Canaletto 公寓

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