Rothschild Headquarters, London
OMA - Office for Metropolitan Architecture- Type Commercial / Office Headquarters / office
- Date 2005 - 2011
- City London
- Country United Kingdom
- Photographer Iwan Baan
Settled in London since 1809, when Nathan Meyer Rothschild left Manchester and established residence in the city, Rothschild’s premises are located in an urban area with a rich architectural heritage, in the heart of the City of London, adjacent to St. Stephen Walbrook church. The headquarters has undergone three extensions, each increasingly isolating the church. What began as a dialogue between two open spaces in the city – a courtyard and a churchyard –, has been reduced to an accidental proximity. The main purpose was to reinstate a visual connection between them so that they would form a new urban ensemble.
Inspired in the vertical motif of the church tower, the design stems from the extrusion of simple and bold prismatic volumes transformed through a series of repetitions and permutations into a hybrid of cube and annexes. The central cube of the building consists of ten flexible open-plan office floors. Three of the annexes house support facilities (meeting rooms, foyers, cafeteria, and gymnasium), while the fourth annex sits at the top of this central cube, with management areas that afford clear views of St. Paul’s Cathedral and the rest of the city.
Client
Rothschild
Architects
OMA. Partners-in-charge: Rem Koolhaas, Ellen van Loon. Project Managers: Carol Patterson, Adrianne Fisher, Adekunle Adeyemi. Team: Elisa Simonetti, Haiko Cornelissen, Isabel da Silva, Keigo Kobayashi, Jarek Kubik, Anna Little, Jason Long, Matthew Murphy, Michel van de Kar, with: João Amaro, Clement Blanchet, Tiago Branco, Matt Brown, Mark Dahmen, Claire Destrebecq, Tomas Dirrix, Anita Ernodi, Nicolas Firket, Martin Gallovsky, Jonah Gamblin, Farshid Gazor, Achim Gergen, Gustavo Guimarães, Pascal Lestringant, Per Linde, Christoph Michael, Susana Mondejar, Katharina Nerhe, Gianna Ong-Alok, Daan Ooievaar, Gustavo Paternina, Marc Paulin, Manuel Pelicano Moreira, Dirk Peters, Anna Pribylova, Marta Rodríguez Fernández, Nina Sahebkar, Jad Semaan, Saskia Simon, Daliana Suryawinata, Christin Svensson, Anna Tjumina, Katrien van Dijk, Rodrigo Vilas Boas, Pero Vukovic, Leoni Wenz, Shuchen Xiang, Nurdan Yakup, Junjie Yan, Lucia Zamponi
Allies and Morrison Architects. Team: Andrew Dean (Lead Architect), Billy Choi, Mark Foster, Robert Maxwell (Project Partner), with: Joel Davenport, Juliet Harris, Sophie Lian Jie, Andrew McMullan, Christine Peters, James Petty, Mariana Rodrigues, Stefen Schoenefuss, Lenny Sequeira, Frances Taylor, Mark Taylor, Alex Wraight
Fit-out architect typical office floors: Pringle Brandon; Partner-in-charge: Jack Pringle, with: Charles Vine, Fiona Ballance, Linzi Cassels, Jane Clay, Marianna Dietrich, Mijail Gutierrez, David Halpenny, Iñaki Isla
Consultants
Development advisor: Stanhope. Engineer: Arup. Cost consultant: Davis Langdon. Construction manager: Lend Lease. Planning consultant: DP9. Lighting: Arup, GIA Equation. Access: David Bonnett Associates. Archaeology: MOLAS. Landscape: Inside Outside, with Aura Melis & Jana Crepon, Charles Funke Associates. Facade engineering: Front and Arup. Acoustics: DHV/ Arup. AV consultant: Mark Johnson Consultants. IT consultant: PTS. Catering consultant: Tricon Food Services. Security consultant: QCIC Group. Commissioning Manager: Core Group. Storage consultant: WZN Consulting. Signage consultant: Irma Boom. Property consultant: Knight Frank Newmark. Reception curtain: Inside Outside - Petra Blaisse, with Peter Niessen, Miki Satoh & Francesca Sartori. Townscape adviser: Peter Stewart Consultancy
Program
Office headquarters: 21,000 m² (GFA)
Fotos Photos
Iwan Baan
