At 62 storeys, 22 Bishopsgate is the second tallest building in London, and the first "vertical village"

Located on the site of an abandoned project in the heart of London's financial district, 22 Bishopsgate came with constraints above and below ground that inspired our team to think creatively and seize the opportunity to cut embodied carbon dramatically. As a result, the project has achieved the 2020 target for embodied carbon reduction recommended by the London Energy Transformation Initiative (LETI) in its roadmap to net zero – placing it more than 40% below LETI’s business-as-usual benchmark.

• 591 kgCO2e/m² – total embodied carbon
• 41% lower than LETI’s business-as-usual benchmark
• 2% lower than LETI’s 2020 target

WSP provided a full range of consultancy services, is a 62 storey office building envisaged as a ‘vertical village’, providing facilities including retail, restaurants, fitness centre, an auditorium and spaces for a variety of leisure and learning activities. The basement will accommodate bicycle parking that meets latest TfL standards, and the free public viewing gallery at the top of the building will be the highest in London.

From the beginning, our client had high targets for sustainability, comfort and occupant wellbeing – 22 Bishopsgate is the largest project by floor area in the UK to be registered for WELL certification, and it has also been designed to achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating.

When construction of The Pinnacle was halted in 2009, it left behind a three-storey basement with nine floors of concrete core and piles embedded more than 50m into the ground. Rather than excavating this basement and beginning again, our team successfully re-used 100% of the existing foundations and 50% of the basement in a design that also made use of older existing buildings on the site.