New London Architecture

Roots In The Sky

Planning Granted

Roots in The Sky will be London’s first office building to deliver a rooftop urban forest across 1.4 acres with extensive access for the local community and general public

Roots in The Sky will be London’s first office building to deliver an urban forest rooftop with extensive access for the local community and general public across 1.4 acres. The project will deliver community gardens, a dedicated community barn in the most commercially valuable space in the development, as well as a rooftop restaurant, bar, swimming pool and terraces for the office space below. Set to be one of the largest urban roof gardens in Europe, the building will make a significant contribution to London’s ambitious targets for greening, biodiversity and sustainability.

Fabrix completed the acquisition of the site in Q1 2020 and by Q4 2020 their scheme was granted planning committee approval by London Borough of Southwark, followed by GLA approval in March 2021. It involves the radical reimagining of the former Blackfriars Crown Court as a post-covid workspace, with 385,000 sq ft of contemporary and sustainable office, commercial and community space.

The building will have best in class environmental and wellbeing accreditations including BREEAM Outstanding, WELL Platinum and Wiredscore Platinum. However, the essence of the project and Fabrix’ regard for the environment and locality goes much deeper than this.

The existing 1960s building – a former stationery office and later a Crown Court – provided the starting point to develop an office building with generous volumes and adaptable floor plates of up to 40,000 sq ft. The project team have designed a lightweight hybrid steel and CLT frame, with the ability to support the urban forest and its 1,300 tonnes of soil. Whilst internally, the building’s intuitive environmental strategy not only exceeds the highest sustainability accreditations but seeks to further enhance occupier’s wellbeing with its passive ventilation strategy, openable windows maximising access to fresh air and a full-height feature atrium which facilitates the extraction of waste heat from the building.

The rooftop and building landscaping, designed by landscape design practice Harris Bugg, exceeds the urban forest criteria set out by the United Nations with canopy cover of 23% and over 100 established trees and 10,000 plants, which can only be achieved with 1m+ soil depths creating huge structural loads and technical challenges. As part of the brief Fabrix made it clear the building should create space for nature and not just humans and in a response to this, parts of the roof tree density is so high that it is inaccessible for people. Other technical aspects of the roof are also ground-breaking such as the design of its passive water capture and irrigation system, which will irrigate the rooftop planting on demand. The roof also includes a full length 20m Perspex bottomed swimming pool that will be heated by the buildings waste energy, showing how luxury and sustainability can co-exist.

Roots in The Sky will demonstrate that valuable placemaking can take place through single commercial office buildings rather than just large masterplans. It will show that bringing inspiring new community spaces alongside commercial development is of benefit to the neighbourhood and tenants alike. Often developers will place ‘community space’ in the lowest value areas, but in an unprecedented step Fabrix selected the most commercially valuable area of the scheme to put a community building featuring tea and coffee (honesty box) and a community garden overlooking The Shard. It will bring together the community, public and private areas with spectacular views across London. On top of this Fabrix have committed to dedicating 25,000 sq ft to affordable workspace and a ground floor auditorium with full AV system which will be ‘free to use for a purpose’.

“Our vision for Roots in The Sky is a modern workplace that actively engages with its local surroundings, and helps shape a neighbourhood that is enjoyable, liveable and economically productive. It’s a commercial building that aims to be a ‘good citizen’, offering a genuine place for community uses, contributing to the ongoing regeneration of Bankside and to London’s wider greening targets. This building will be a true vehicle for change and will set a new benchmark for office development, as well as be a beacon representing everything that is great about London.” Clive Nichol, CEO, Fabrix.

Roots In The Sky will be London’s first office building to deliver a 1.4-acre urban forest rooftop with extensive access for the local community and general public. The project will deliver community space, accommodate collaborative neighbourhood uses, a rooftop restaurant, bar, swimming pool and terraces, all alongside one of the largest roof gardens in Europe, providing cooling shade, fresh air, and access to nature. The building will make a significant contribution to London’s ambitious targets for greening, biodiversity, and sustainability — providing space for nature, not just humans. 

 The radical repurposing of the former Blackfriars Crown Court into a next-gen workspace will deliver 385,000 sq ft of contemporary and sustainable office, commercial and community space. The existing 1960s structure provides the blank canvas to develop a forward-thinking office building that replaces an urban heat island with a genuinely living rooftop.  

 The project team have designed a lightweight hybrid steel and CLT frame, reducing embodied carbon and providing the ability to support an urban forest with 1,300 tonnes of soil. Internally, the building’s intuitive environmental strategy not only exceeds the highest sustainability accreditations but seeks to further enhance occupiers’ wellbeing with a passive ventilation strategy, openable windows maximising access to fresh air, and a full-height feature atrium which facilitates the extraction of waste heat from the building.

 We have covered our cities in concrete — how do we respond? The rooftop and building landscaping, designed by landscape design practice Harris Bugg, exceeds the urban forest criteria set out by the UN with canopy cover of 23 per cent, provided by over 100 established trees and 10,000 plants. Technical aspects of the roof are also ground-breaking, such as the design of a passive water capture system which will irrigate the planting above on demand, reducing the net external water demand of the building.

 Uncertain, extreme weather is facing London; this building was designed with adaptive flexibility in mind. An openable facade provides natural ventilation, and urban greening of the terraces gives shade in summer, reducing local temperatures by up to 8°C.

An all-electric building, wastewater heat recovery and air source heat pumps further reduce reliance on the grid.

Embodied carbon has been thoughtfully considered in material selection, utilising timber within a steel frame with high recycled content. Rainwater is recycled for irrigation, alleviating pressure on water infrastructure, with 1,300 tonnes of absorbent soil providing a natural water buffer, protecting against flash flooding.

#ResilientLondon
NEW LONDON AWARDS 2021

NEW LONDON AWARDS 2021

Winner in the UNBUILT category
Roots in The Sky is the radical reimagining of Blackfriars Crown Court. It will deliver 385k sq ft of work, wellness and community space, a 1.1 acre urban forest on the roof holding 100 trees, 10k plants, 1.3k tons of soil along with a rooftop pool heated by waste energy. It will be a place people are excited to leave home to go to work. This is a building that a global tech company would build for itself, not a developer speculatively. It achieved unanimous LBS planning committee approval with local residents speaking in favour of its development. It celebrates all that makes London great!

Project information

Status

Planning Granted

Borough

Southwark

Size

38666 sq m

Completion

2027


Location

1 Pocock St, London SE1 0EQ, UK


Team Credits

Developer

Fabrix

Architect

Sheppard Robson Architects LLP

Project Manager

Gardiner & Theobald LLP

Landscape Architect

Harris Bugg Studio

M&E / Sustainability Engineer

Atelier Ten

Structural Engineer

AKT II

Planning Consultant

Gerald Eve

Ecology Consultant

Waterman Group

Concept Architect

Studio RHE

Cost Consultant

Quantem

Leasing Agent

Knight Frank LLP


Listed by

Fabrix

Last updated on

31/05/2024


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