The Standard

London, United Kingdom

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The Standard

London, United Kingdom

Firm

Orms

Type

Hospitality + Sport › Hotel

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2019

SIZE

25,000 sqft - 100,000 sqft

BUDGET

Undisclosed

Directly opposite St Pancras Station, the former 1970’s Camden Town Hall Annexe has been repurposed into an iconic boutique hotel, whilst maintaining the existing Brutalist structure previously deemed ‘detrimental to the conservation area’.

Key features include three new stories added on top and the new external lift, which transports guests directly to the tenth-floor restaurant. Clad in black stainless steel and glass, the sculpted form of the extension is derived from the host building below.

The ground floor accommodates reception, bar and restaurant, with a new façade
made up of timber framed windows and brick. The removal of the western external staircase has created permeability from Euston Road into Tonbridge Walk linking with the new public garden, providing an oasis of calm and re-engaging the building with its local context.

With sustainability at the heart of this conversion, refurbishment first principles have been applied throughout the design. 94% of the existing primary structure has been retained, capturing 5,773 tCOe of embodied carbon. This includes the façade of individual structural precast concrete panels, which have been restored and thermally improved. New slim framed windows have replaced the tired originals, new services systems were threaded throughout the existing structure, and existing risers and air shafts were re-used to minimise space impacts and the need for costly structural interventions. The project has achieved a 60% improvement on the minimum targets of embodied carbon that the RIBA Climate challenge is setting for buildings delivered in 2030.