Innovative refurbishment and recycling at New Zealand House
Our scheme for The Crown Estate brings this listed landmark up to modern environmental standards without prejudicing its iconic visual appearance – replacing the 9mm single-glazed envelope, improving the efficiency of floorplates and substituting archaic chiller/heating plant with air-source heat pumps.
Commissioned in the 1950’s and opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1963, New Zealand House illustrates a period of post-war embassy building excellence in London. Now Grade II listed, it was the first office building in London to be fully air conditioned and the first tower to be fully glazed on all sides.
Sustainable innovations include:
- Clear glazing that mimics the original building’s transparency using a novel clear double-glazed mechanically ventilated system with interstitial blinds to provide shade and glare control.
- Cleaning and restoring the 80 mm-thick Portland stone faces to the concrete spandrels.
- Recycling internal glass partitioning in a pilot project for reuse in Saint Gobain’s recycled float glass product. This requires the soft strip contractor KpH to carefully remove gaskets and silicone to avoid contamination. One tonne of glass chips makes 1.2 tonnes of float glass. To date, KpH have supplied SGB with 22 tonnes of glass.
- Multiplex, the main contractor, is discussing the potential to roll this out for the main building glazing.
- New anodised glazing profiles by Pandolfo to match the historic colours of the building with a new product that overcomes difficulties of anodising aluminium incorporating large (85%) proportions of post-consumer waste.
Existing entrance from Haymarket
Cantilevered entrance canopy on to Haymarket
Existing podium lift lobby
Podium lift lobby during soft strip
Tower and podium meet at level three terrace
Projecting stone cills to tower floors
Podium basement floors during soft strip
Screed removal within tower floors
Existing cladding corner detail at level eight
Replacement glazing mock-up in Germany - note the glass is clear as the original
Stone lining to lift lobby prior to removal for restoration
Lift lobby during soft strip
Innovative refurbishment and recycling at New Zealand House
Our scheme for The Crown Estate brings this listed landmark up to modern environmental standards without prejudicing its iconic visual appearance – replacing the 9mm single-glazed envelope, improving the efficiency of floorplates and substituting archaic chiller/heating plant with air-source heat pumps.
Commissioned in the 1950’s and opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1963, New Zealand House illustrates a period of post-war embassy building excellence in London. Now Grade II listed, it was the first office building in London to be fully air conditioned and the first tower to be fully glazed on all sides.
Sustainable innovations include:
- Clear glazing that mimics the original building’s transparency using a novel clear double-glazed mechanically ventilated system with interstitial blinds to provide shade and glare control.
- Cleaning and restoring the 80 mm-thick Portland stone faces to the concrete spandrels.
- Recycling internal glass partitioning in a pilot project for reuse in Saint Gobain’s recycled float glass product. This requires the soft strip contractor KpH to carefully remove gaskets and silicone to avoid contamination. One tonne of glass chips makes 1.2 tonnes of float glass. To date, KpH have supplied SGB with 22 tonnes of glass.
- Multiplex, the main contractor, is discussing the potential to roll this out for the main building glazing.
- New anodised glazing profiles by Pandolfo to match the historic colours of the building with a new product that overcomes difficulties of anodising aluminium incorporating large (85%) proportions of post-consumer waste.
