Imperial College 8-15 Princes Gardens and Weeks Hall Development

After being successfully added to Imperial College London’s framework, Elementa won a new bid, this time for a mixed use project. The Princes Gardens Development, situated in central London, consists of eight grade two listed Victorian town houses – 2 of which are currently used for a nursery – and Weeks Hall, a 10 story grade two listed tower, situated adjacent to the Princes Gardens and previously used as a halls of residence.

Imperial College wanted to undertake a full refurbishment on Weeks Hall, with all existing services fully stripped out and replaced with new services to align with the proposed new academic use. The remodel for the academic site will now be home to the college’s business school as well as other academic facilities. The town houses are also undergoing refurbishment with the nursery school remodelled and modernised, with up to date facilities fitted. The other seven houses are going to be renovated with the rest of the development site to accommodate new academic uses.

As always with listed sites, challenges are faced through the need to retain natural features of the historic buildings while updating them with all the necessary modern facilities. This makes it very difficult to route services throughout the buildings without damaging the listed historic elements internally.

Elementa are providing full MEP services on the development, working closely to coordinate with the architect on this project to ensure that no listed features would be altered. Elementa carried out intensive, intrusive surveys in the early stages of the design process in order to identify potential service routes. As the building also has a history of overheating in the summer, Elementa resolved this issue with the design of a solar film to be fitted to the lining of the window glazing.

Due to finish in January 2019, the remodel is set to rejuvenate Imperial College London’s facilities and restore the historic buildings to their former glory.