12 Westfield Avenue

Design for commercial planning application

This new-build commercial office building was commissioned to satisfy the demand for open-plan floorplates which are diverse, adaptable and sustainable. Walsh provided structural and civil engineering services to support the preparation of a planning application.

The site is very constrained on all sides by a main road (south), shopping centre (north) completed Office 14 Westfield (west) and the DLR (east). This meant that forming the 7m-deep basement required was therefore very complex. We had to confirm the structural zones for basement walls and design the general arrangement for the new drop-off and crossing for the final condition.

Each floor comprises a semi-enclosed and verdantly planted ‘green room’ which interlock vertically as a series of double and single storey volumes that ascend the south east elevation and provide passive shading to the interior. The structure had to be carefully coordinated around this, so Walsh designed the stability system for the final core layout, the column position and sizes, the form of feature columns, the structural floor depths and the design of parapets and screen support.

We investigated a number of structural forms and span configurations including post-tension floors, traditional reinforced concrete, steel frame and composite floors and timber floors with steel or concrete frames. The embodied carbon of each, including the entire substructure and superstructure, was then compared.