1 Southbank Place, York Road, Bishop’s, London SE1 7NW

1 Southbank Place Headline Facts:

563 reconstructed stone panels, covering 7,905 square meters.

Contractor : Canary Wharf Group PLC

Architect : Squire and Partners

Watch our video here :

Video Credit : Gary Britton Photography
The Finer Details :

The redevelopment of Southbank Place in central London comprises 8 new buildings surrounding the quarter’s centrepiece, the Shell Centre Tower.  The overall redevelopment once completed, will be home to a mixture of offices, residences and retail space and will integrate with open public areas and pedestrian routes.  Techrete were engaged by Canary Wharf Group PLC to design, manufacture and install the precast concrete panels for three of the buildings within the quarter and these were Building 1, Building 4A and Building 4B.

Southbank Place 1 appears to step backwards in three blocks from the ground floor to story 5, from level 6 to level 9 and finally, from level 10 to level 14.

The building features 2 and 3 storey height panels, which were 11 metres long.  A major feature of the panels was their extra deep returns on the legs which creates a solar shade and visually achieves the architects design intent.

Self-compacting concrete using Techrete’s C190 mix for a warm off-white colour, was finished with acid etching to lightly expose the aggregate, giving the panels a soft slightly textured appearance.  Granite plinths were also utilised in a Kurum Grey finish and these were supplied to Techrete by Savema. 

A canopy was created down one elevation of building 1 to create a semi-enclosed space linking buildings 1 and 2.  The canope interfaces with the steel work and it was this interface, whilst small in size, was crucial in the overall development of the canope and was incredibly intricate for our draughtsmen to model.