Typewriter Building

Client

W.RE are a team of London focused commercial property specialists creating value for investors, occupiers, and the wider community by identifying investment opportunities that improve the spaces we work, play and live in.

You can read more about W.RE here: W.RE (wre.london)

Scope

Trigon was appointed by W.RE to support the design development and prepare a detailed fire safety strategy for the Typewriter Building development located in Borough High Street, London, SE1. The proposed work consists of a complete refurbishment of the building to be used as offices. W.RE wanted to restore the modernist character of the building, which was originally designed by Richard Seifert in the 1950s and to bring the building forward into the 21st century, creating contemporary workspaces that meet the evolving demands of today's occupiers.

The project had a number of fire safety challenges due to the constraints of the existing building. Trigon worked closely with the team to achieve the architectural intent whilst proposing fire safety measure that could be incorporated within the constraints of the existing building. In order to support the proposed approach, additional fire safety enhancements were recommended such as a mechanically ventilated lobby to one of the stairs.

Our responsibilities for the entire fire safety strategy include:

• Develop a robust fire safety strategy addressing project specific arrangements.

• Support the team through Planning stages including addressing the intent of The London Plan 2021.

• Developed a fire engineering approach incorporating computational fluid dynamic (CFD) techniques to support the use of a mechanical ventilation system to a lobby to one of the stairs.

Results

Trigon worked closely with the client, architect and wider design team to meet the project specific goals. Trigon has worked with the team providing initial early support identifying initial design risks, through to producing a detailed RIBA Stage 4 fire strategy.

Where fire safety challenges were identified through the design process, Trigon worked with the team to ensure the project specific goals were met.