Hackney Council has granted the retrofit-focused developer Kinrise planning permission for the renovation of 49 East Road, Shoreditch. Acquired in late 2021, the building marks the firm’s much-anticipated arrival in the capital and is set to be transformed into over 34,000 sq.ft of 100% green energy, BREEAM ‘outstanding’, work and social space.
Formerly known as 49 East Road, ‘Silbury + East’ comprises two interconnected former factories – soup and textiles, on a corner block 200 metres from London’s ‘Silicon roundabout’. Working in close partnership with local architecture practice Anomaly, Silbury + East is envisioned to become an ‘oasis of calm’ amidst the bustle of Old Street. The building will be fit for local creatives in need of a desk for the day, through to global companies establishing a new headquarters. Kinrise and Anomaly share a strong ethos and advocacy for retrofit development over rebuilds. This is due to the tonnage of embodied carbon saved compared to new build schemes, as well as for the protection and celebration of iconic, ‘high-character’ spaces that are being demolished at an alarming scale.
Silbury + East stands as a leading example of this approach. By working with the building’s existing fabric, Kinrise will achieve a 71% embodied carbon reduction, the equivalent saving of 1,426 tonnes of CO2. Specification is to include LED smart lighting, VRF air conditioning, localised MVHR system, solar panels and the use of recycled materials throughout its contemporary fit out.
When complete, the basement and ground floor will be open to the public for affordable, pay as you go desks, studios and meeting rooms designed to welcome a community of freelancers and SMEs. It will also house a new café, ‘Silbury Kitchen’, open to the public as well as tenants. The following six floors will be dedicated to private offices, including three entirely new levels providing an additional 15,145 sq.ft. The signature piece for the building are the five new garden terraces with plentiful and biodiverse planting, aimed to help nurture productivity and wellbeing, creating an inspiring setting for tenants to breathe, think and work.
The strip out of the building has already been completed, with formal works scheduled to begin in Q1 2023.
Sam Lawson Johnston, co-founder of Kinrise, comments, “We have been looking for a building like Silbury + East in London for over 5 years. A building with this character, history and location gives us a rare opportunity to do something truly different and bespoke for the new post-pandemic worker. Our scheme is designed for those wanting to deepen their connection with where they work and who they work with. Silbury + East is a response to our growing need to work in a peaceful environment with plentiful green space and natural light. We believe we have the perfect canvas to work with to bring this vision to life.”
Liam Spencer, Co-founder and Director at Anomaly comments; “This project is an absolute dream brief for us. It ticked all the boxes of adaptive reuse and retrofitting that we are so passionate about as a practice. To have that passion mirrored in a client like Kinrise is fantastic. The existing warehouse is full of characterful features that were lost behind plasterboard and suspended ceilings. The design looks to bring these front and centre, exposing the cast iron structure, re-activating the loading bay doors and celebrating the patchwork of brick tones across the site. We cannot wait to get to site in the new year.”
