Zaha Hadid Architects partnered up with Southbank Tower, for the company's first interior refurbishment project, in order to renovate the building’s lobby. The office structure, designed by Richard Seifert in 1972, had already gone through massive renovation works, led by KPF in 2015.
With construction scheduled to start in early 2020, and finish by the end of the summer of the same year, the 200 square meter lobby of the repurposed tower “is the first in a series of brand partnerships for Southbank Tower on behalf of the investment firm which acquired 37 apartments within the building in early 2018”.
Back in 2015, the building was transformed from a 30-story office building into a 41-story mixed-use tower that incorporates two and three-bedroom apartments. With ZHA’s intervention, the lobby will welcome a new mezzanine and lift, concierge desk and novel lighting scheme.
The design has evolved from our work reinventing the spaces of art museums and galleries around the world; creating immersive spatial experiences for the Southbank Tower’s lobby that enhance the materiality and volumes of the original structure. -- Helmut Kinzler, ZHA project director.
Inspired by the organic flow of flower petals, the design conceals the lobby’s lighting scheme, through a composition of overlapping elements. Fluid curves generate the tower’s concierge's desk on the ground floor, “before peeling back at the top to reveal a new mezzanine level which serves as an additional lounge for residents and guests”. With marble and concrete, walnut and leather, the space uses the same color palette as the existing building.
Moreover, produced from glass fiber reinforced gypsum, the crafted architectural petals are cut in an off-site studio using 3D digital fabrication. The marble furniture pieces were also created to precision using the same method, in order to “minimize the duration of works in the lobby and disturbance to residents”.
- Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA)
- Design: Patrik Schumacher
- ZHA Project Director: Helmut Kinzler
- ZHA Project Associate: Zetta Kotsioni
- ZHA Project Team: Amittai Antoine, Torsten Broeder, Iliana Capsali, Aleksandra Mnich-Spraiter, Regina Ng, Marco Pavoni, Hendrik Rupp, Risa Tadauchi
- Project Management: NASH Worldwide Ltd
- Planning Consultant: Montagu Evans LLP
- Quantity Surveyor: MEA
- Structural Engineer: AKT II Ltd
- MEP Engineer / Fire Safety Consultants: SWECO UK Ltd
- Light Consultant: Inverse Lighting Design Ltd
- Marketing PR: Jackyl UK Investment Ltd
- Rendering: Arch018 srl
- Others: Moritz Haeker
