Bryden Wood’s approach to adaptive reuse uses a clear operational and embodied carbon hierarchy, as shown in the diagrams below.
It’s a place that is conducive to creating great architecture.’.Khalifa agrees, ‘having a space has made a huge difference.
The open nature of the building really helps me.I like walking around to see what the other studios are putting up on their walls.It really motivates me to keep on going and be creative.’ All of the GWS studios have glass walls, which means every stuck-up Post-it note or storyboard is showcased to the world giving away just a little bit of what lies beneath.
It keeps the light moving as well as a sense of inspiration between the residents.. ‘We originally wanted a studio in the atrium, but they were all taken.People love them,’ says Abubakar.
West Port & Co’s office is on the outside of the building where they have the most London of views: the concrete underside of the Westway, a bus depot filled with bright red, double-decker buses, and the railway tracks that will eventually be home to The Elizabeth Line.
‘It’s actually a really quiet environment,’ Obinna Ihejetoh says, ‘we always forget we’re under the Westway.’.The high ceilings in the theatres are mentioned by Maswiken, as being a particularly excellent feature of the building, with respect to the way they aid with the use and management of equipment.
‘You can actually leave the key equipment in those theatres, rather than moving that equipment up and down all the time,’ he says, before reflecting that actually, because the theatres benefit from ‘integrated systems,’ everything is already mounted and can just be moved around, which he refers to as, ‘yet another advantage.’.Johnston elaborates, commenting on the high level of integration between the structural, MEP, architectural finishes, electrical, data etc… All of this, he says, allowed Bryden Wood ‘to create a high level of prefabricated MEP (building in ease of maintenance and replacement) interfacing with a highly systemised superstructure.’.
In addition to these advantages, Maswiken enthuses about how lucky they are at Circle Reading to have their core/prep rooms, as well as the benefit of a layout which enables patients to go out through recovery to the wards, rather than back through the theatres.. Goel also comments on layout efficiency saying, ‘The recovery, the day case ward...is very close by.. Further to this, he and Maswiken have many other positive elements to highlight about the Circle theatres.The three used predominantly for orthopaedic surgery have laminate floors and special ventilation systems providing ultra clean air, which Goel describes as ‘perfect.’ He also enthuses about how having images of x-rays on the computer system, enables them to be projected onto a television screen on the wall.
(Editor: Eco Juicers)