A reuse and extension of an existing office block, Impact House was granted permission under Permitted Development Rights and in respect of the extended component normal full planning regime – including the application of the London Housing Design Guide requirements.

Inspired Use
The entire building façade was replaced with a high-performance system articulated to align more recognisably with the building’s new residential use. This, however, was complicated by the original structure of the building with tall reinforced concrete upstands and shear-walls, which needed to remain and be incorporated into the new design.

Agile construction
Half of the ground floor level is let to an all-hours NHS walk-in centre, which had to remain in use during construction. This challenged the servicing of the residential units above. To answer this issue, the servicing was condensed as far as possible, to limit the number of openings needed through the existing slabs and minimise the disruption.

The design and development of the scheme were assisted greatly by the use of BIM protocols from early on in the project, allowing the various stakeholders and consultants to share and combine their input quickly and accurately.