RIBA Regional Awards 2014: London
One Pancras Square, King's Cross
David Chipperfield Architects for Argent
GIA 6,192m2
How to make an ordinary speculative office block memorable: express its frame with lattice-patterned sandcast iron columns. This is a gateway building for the vast King’s Cross Central development and you don’t have to look far to find a historic precedent for cast-iron pillars. On the southern facade, valuable floorspace is devoted to a deep balcony for the upper floors which doubles as solar shading. With a double-height ground floor, tall ceilings and an entrance of Italian marble and white polished plaster, this is a workplace with a lot of the palazzo about it. It’s rare for spec offices, even low-energy ones like this, to get much of a showing in awards, but Chipperfield is famous for finding architecture outside the brief.