The original pair of warehouses, built to store and transfer coal in the English capital between the 1850s and 1860s, is transformed into a new public commercial space that celebrates the structure and history of the ancient industrial buildings.
The two-story coal depots, crowned by slate pavilion roofs, appear as richly decorated structures in cast iron and brick, but partially abandoned.
The main objective of the project by Heatherwick Studio, an architecture and creativity studio already known for architecture projects such as the Coal Drops Yard, is to celebrate the history of the industrial buildings while creating a new public space for commercial purposes.
The long and linear site is transformed into a vibrant retail district, where people can gather and move around easily. The interior roofs of the warehouses are expanded, and instead of inserting another rectangular element between the buildings, it was chosen to raise the existing roofs and extend them towards each other, defining the central focus of the project, as well as a new upper level.
This architectural device blends old and new, creating the illusion of two buildings touching each other mid-air, requiring a very complex structural solution: steel columns hidden behind bricks and aged iron. From the elevated point, you can admire King's Cross to the south or Cubitt Square to the north. The space under the new roof is up to twenty meters high, large enough to host shows or concerts.
