London
Finsbury Leisure Centre and Residential
Redevelopment of existing leisure centre to provide new leisure facilities, health centre, landscaped gardens and 200 residential units (50% council 50% private), including a 20-storey tower. The proposed structure will be formed from different materials to suit the intended end use. The residential buildings will be Passivhaus buildings, a building standard that aims to achieve thermal comfort with very low energy use. A new basement will connect all three residential blocks for cycle parking. Construction value circa £120m.
Client: LondonBorough of Islington
Location: London
Sector: Mixed Use, Residential, Leisure
Architect: LevittBernstein
Structural Engineers: Evolve
MEP Engineer: Hoare Lea
Image Credit: Levitt Bernstein
Challenge
Several challenges and site constraints were present among this large redevelopment project. Including a Thames Water sewer runs directly through the site in between the residential blocks and leisure and medical centre, and a UKPN cable tunnel and access shaft runs that run under the pavement on the Central Street elevation. Extensive coordination and liaison around these elements was required.
Furthermore, the existing basement to the leisure centre was planned for new function with a sunken sports hall and was intended to be extended beyond its original footprint for new changing rooms/plant rooms. This was to avoid constructing an entirely new basement, which would be simpler but a more carbon intensive solution, the option to retain the existing basement walls was developed.
Solution
To enable retaining the basement, detailed analysis of the basement slab and walls was conducted for both the existing and proposed use to determine if the structure had sufficient capacity, and determine any strengthening work required. The Leisure Centre layout had to be coordinated carefully with the design team to ensure the basement could be retained whilst achieving the required use. The buildability of the proposals was reviewed and a construction sequence developed to ensure the proposals were achievable.
Ground movement assessments were undertaken by a geotechnical specialist to ensure the proposed works would not adversely affect the existing Thames Water sewer from the Leisure Centre and the UKPN tunnel from the 20-sotrey residential tower. The foundations for the 20 storey residential tower was switch to a pile raft with significant cantilever to enable this.
