Client Imperial War Museums
Location London, UK
Status Completed
Awards
2021 New London Architecture Awards: Shortlist
Parkside, Jestico + Whiles’ headquarters for Imperial War Museums, provides the principal workspace for the Imperial War Museums’ staff acting as a central hub for their employees a stone’s throw from their main museum, Imperial War Museum, London.
This new addition to Imperial War Museum’s (IWM) estate is nestled in behind the All Saints Building which historically provided office and archive space for IWM which will now be repurposed into leased office space. The museum’s relocation from old to new will allow the purpose-built Parkside to more readily reflect IWM’s brand, act as a catalyst for change, and to offer a creative hub for collaboration between the Museums’ teams.
Parkside is not immediately recoginsable as offsite construction – it hides its credentials well behind a finely detailed, demure façade that is typical of more traditional construction. However, off-site construction was considered by IWM from the outset of the project due to the short timescale to handover and the challenging tight site location.
The design meets the challenge of the sensitive location with its use of a light grey tone brickwork arranged to form a regular grid of recessed bays within which vertical paired windows echo the local Georgian townhouse vernacular.
Parkside is arranged simply, with the ground floor providing shared and flexible welfare facilities. The two upper floors provide a combination of open workspace and formal and informal meeting spaces. The floor plates are column-free as the modular construction was able to span the full width of the building in the western half overlooking the park.
With sustainability as another key project driver, the building is set to achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating. The triple aspect workspace utilises natural ventilation and daylight strategies to lessen the energy demand on the active systems.