Saffron Square Tower

Lean design changes kick-start completion of iconic tower

The Saffron Square tower formed the last phase of the wider Wellsley Square in Croydon development by Berkeley Homes. The former phases were completed during the financial crash of 2008 but the tower remained unfinished above second floor. Walsh were asked to join the Berkeley Homes team to help finish the tower and implement a number of changes with internal layouts and ground floor extensions.

Walsh were responsible for the design of the tower structure above level 2 and created an innovative design using part post-tensioned and part traditional reinforced concrete slabs. This kept the structure simple and the floor slabs as thin as possible while maintaining low deflections.

Keeping the reinforcement simple but lean meant that a rapid turnaround of one week per floor was achieved by the concrete frame contractors Morrisroe. This was an exceptionally fast rate of construction for a tower of this size and the changes designed by Walsh helped reduced the overall costs of the structure.