Belgrove House

Proposed

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris

Located at the centre of the Knowledge Quarter opposite Kings' Cross and St. Pancras stations, Belgrove House is a new-build specialised office and laboratory building for the life sciences sector.

Located at the centre of the Knowledge Quarter on Euston Road opposite King’s Cross and St. Pancras stations in Camden, the proposal at Belgrove House is a new specialised office and laboratory building for the life sciences sector. It is designed to be highly sustainable and an example of how carbon emissions may be reduced in construction, operation, and future refurbishment, including whole-life carbon assessment.

A planning application for the building has been submitted to Camden Council.

The building's configuration emerges from a clear, legible arrangement of uses on the site. Life sciences research laboratories and write-up offices can be located on the largest floorplates at floors one to three, providing animation to the façades and a public window into the research activity within. HQ style offices can be located to the north of the site on floors five to nine. A generous ground floor provides combined occupant and public access via the main entrance on Euston Road into a reception and exhibition space. A new step-free entrance to the Underground is proposed, located on the north-west corner, a direct link from the building into King’s Cross and St. Pancras Stations. From Argyle Square a publicly-accessible entrance into a café and event, meeting and education space is proposed offering new animation to the square and access into the lower-ground floor auditorium.

A principal objective for Belgrove House is to ensure the development and its occupiers contribute to reducing inequalities and increasing life chances in the area. The proposed development will deliver a substantial package of public benefits that respond to this objective, and Camden’s vision, maximising social value at the planning, construction, and end user phases by supporting increased access to jobs, skills training, and education opportunities.

The ground floor entrances will provide shared access for MSD employees, members of the public, and Knowledge Quarter organisations. This will foster engagement, exchange, and public awareness of the opportunities associated with the development.

A second objective is to deliver a highly sustainable building. To achieve this the team have utilised a full life-cycle carbon assessment model, and have developed a series of innovative design measures, including novel ventilation strategies and highly efficient systems that substantially reduce operational carbon emissions. A ‘biophilic’ double-skin façade will provide views through planting and the opportunity for fresh air from opening windows.

Precis Advisory, Gerald Eve Planning Consultants and AHMM Architects

NEW LONDON AWARDS 2021

Shortlisted in the UNBUILT category
Located opposite King’s Cross and St Pancras stations, Belgrove House is a new-build specialised laboratory and office building for the life sciences sector to be occupied by MSD as a Discovery Research Centre and HQ. Research laboratories will be located on floors 1-3, providing animation to the façades and a public window into the activity within. Offices will be located on floors 5-9, with the fourth floor serving as a dedicated collaboration hub. Publicly accessible education, retail uses and a new step-free Underground entrance will be provided within the ground and lower-ground levels.

Knowledge Networks: London and the Ox-Cam Arc

At the centre of the Knowledge Quarter on Euston Road opposite King’s Cross and St. Pancras stations in Camden, Belgrove House is proposed as a new specialised office and laboratory building for the life-sciences sector. Subject to planning permission, it has been designed for occupiers that undertake globally significant research and wish to collaborate within one of the largest clusters of knowledge-based businesses in the world. Access Storage (part of the Precis Group) has traded successfully from the building for over 15 years.

The proposed scheme respects the nationally significant historic station buildings and responds to the engineering achievements of these in an area of strong character and striking contrasts. Its configuration emerges from a clear, legible arrangement of uses on the site. Life-sciences research laboratories can be located on the largest floorplates at floors 1-3, providing animation to the facades and a public window. HQ style offices can be located on floors 5-9. The 4th floor can serve as a dedicated ‘collaboration hub’.

A generous ground floor provides occupant and public access via the main entrance on Euston Road into a reception and exhibition space. A new step-free entrance to the Underground is proposed linking the building into King’s Cross/ St. Pancras via a new connection at lower-ground floor to the pedestrian tunnel beneath Euston Road. From Argyle Square a publicly-accessible entrance into a café and event, meeting and education space is proposed, animating the square and giving access into a lower-ground floor auditorium.

The design and engineering processes have been informed by the requirements of life-sciences building tenants including increased floor to floor heights to accommodate greater MEP zones, increased vibration resistance within the structure and larger column grids.

It is designed to be highly sustainable and an example of how carbon emissions may be reduced in construction, operation, and future refurbishment.

I nnovative ventilation strategies and highly efficient systems lead to a substantial reduction in anticipated carbon emissions.
Externally expressed risers provide air distribution and solar-shading to facades, reducing heat gains and a ‘biophilic’ double-skin facade can provide views through planting
The scheme is targeting BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ and LEED ‘Gold’, as well as benchmarking the LETI targets and the WELL standard.

The public realm strategy proposes improvements such as new planting and trees within an urban greening design methodology. External terraces at levels four and five can create outdoor amenity space for occupants and a distinct identity when viewed from surrounding areas.

‘This is to be a building at the heart of Camden, the Knowledge Quarter, and London. It is an exciting opportunity to add to the historic importance of the area, which has always been dynamic and is now London’s centre of industry and innovation We hope that our proposal starts an industry conversation about the future direction of the design, flexibility and sustainability of life science building programmes; offers new spatial opportunities for research, collaboration and innovation amongst science and technology organisations; and, importantly, inspires local people in Camden, and especially young people,
by giving them access to this incubator of ideas and exemplar of design.’

Faaiza Lalji, Director, Planning and Development, Precis Advisory/ Access Self Storage
Simon Allford, Director, Allford Hall Monaghan Morris Architects

Zero Carbon London

→ Aspiration to achieve BREEAM Outstanding
→ 43% reduction in regulated operational carbon emissions
→ 44% reduction in material life cycle carbon emissions compared to business as usual
→ Over 95% of construction, demolition and excavation waste will be reused or recycled.

→ Over 75% of operational waste will be diverted from landfill

Located at the centre of the Knowledge Quarter on Euston Road opposite King’s Cross and St. Pancras stations in Camden, the proposal at Belgrove House is a new specialised office and laboratory building for the life sciences sector. It is designed to be highly sustainable and an example of how carbon emissions may be reduced in construction, operation, and future refurbishment, including whole-life carbon assessment.

The building’s configuration emerges from a clear, legible arrangement of uses on the site. Life sciences research laboratories and write-up offices can be located on
the largest floorplates at floors one to three, providing animation to the facades and a public window into the research activity within. HQ style offices can be located
to the north of the site on floors five to nine. A generous ground floor provides combined occupant and public access via the main entrance on Euston Road into a reception and exhibition space. From Argyle Square a publicly-accessible entrance into a café and an event, meeting and education space is proposed offering new animation to the square and access into the lower-ground floor auditorium.

The key environmental approaches for this project are:

Continuous monitoring at each stage of design and into construction
Adoption of Circular Economy principles, conserving resources and reducing waste
Reducing carbon emissions during operation — laboratory ventilation diversified to reduce air volumes and right size plant equipment. Innovative heat recovery system extracts heating and coolth energy from the fume cupboard exhaust air which would otherwise be lost. High efficiency air source heat pumps generate all the heating and cooling for the building, resulting in an all-electric, fossil fuel free building with potential to be net zero carbon in operation via green electricity tariffs.
Distributed perimeter risers minimise services runs and enhance connectivity for fit out. Flat structural soffit simplifies coordination, optimising services routes. Exposed thermal mass reduces diurnal variations in internal temperature, reducing loads on the building systems.
Facade design optimised for thermal performance, controlling solar gains and providing good levels of daylight into the space. At the higher levels, a double skin facade provides the ability to open up internal office space to the outside world when external conditions are favourable.

Project information

Status

Proposed

Borough

Camden

Size

25000 sq m

Completion

2025

Location

King's Cross St. Pancras, Euston Rd, London N1 9AL, UK

Team Credits