London, United Kingdom
Designed by Herzog & de Meuron and Adamson Associates for developers Canary Wharf Group, the new 58-story residential tower expands London’s Canary Wharf Estate forming a part of a new district of Canary Wharf and stands out from the surrounding office towers with a sudden burst of bravado and masterpiece architecture.
Reminiscent of Bertrand Goldberg’s Chicago Marina City towers, One Park Drive shapes the identity of the redevelopment of one of the docklands’ last large remaining undeveloped sites.
It is a tower simultaneously iconic in form and human in scale that embodies the aspirations of its new context, an extension of a dynamic global community, and the start of a new vibrant neighborhood.
“Set against the backdrop of the existing Canary Wharf buildings, the circular form of the new tower clearly distinguishes itself from its orthogonal neighbors,” states Herzog & de Meuron.
“The form is a statement of the tower’s difference. It is a residential tower adding a new dimension to an area dominated by commercial space.”
Set against the backdrop of the existing Canary Wharf buildings, the circular form of the new tower clearly distinguishes itself from its orthogonal neighbors.
The form is a statement of the tower’s difference.
It is a residential tower adding a new dimension to an area dominated by commercial space.
Anchoring the western end of the new district, the circular tower is viewed from all sides.
It is seen equally from the streets of Canary Wharf, the new promenade, and the waterways surrounding it.
The tower addresses both existing and future contexts with no one elevation privileged over the other.
The planning grid is rotated 45 degrees from true North to optimize sunlight exposure to each unit. An orthogonal stepped unit plan protects units from cross views while offering multiple vistas.
The exterior of the new residential tower is the outward expression of the residential units that constitute the majority of the program.
Aggregated together, these units form a tower façade that offers a clear distinction between the human scale of the residential development and the unifying mass of the office towers behind it.
Varying scales of balconies and terraces bring life to the facade.
The stepped elevation and changing relationship between slab, demising wall, and glass is a clearly identifiable manifestation of the unit typologies distributed through the project.
Individual units are as recognizable as the overall elevation.
The building contains 483 apartments arranged over 58 storeys.
Characterized by their distinct relationship to the exterior, the apartments are separated into residential typologies appropriate to their scale and relative height.
Larger loft-type units with high ceilings and generous outdoor areas take advantage of their proximity to the water and the relative wind shelter afforded by their lower elevation.
Smaller apartments make up the majority of units in the central section of the tower and express their mass and scale through the aggregated projection of rooms offset from the cylindrical form above and below.
Alternating stepped floor plans provide balconies for each unit.
The upper levels of the building are predominantly made up of larger two and three-bedroom units, each apartment benefitting from generous set-back terraces carved from the cylindrical volume of the building.
The resulting geometry creates a distinct spiral of large bay windows that offer each apartment generous views over the surrounding docklands and across London.
The different apartment typologies create spaces that are at the same time unique and related—homes that are designed to maximize the potential of their own particular scale and elevation, yet are clearly tied together by their overall architectural expression.
The new tower is a visual gateway to the new district at Canary Wharf.
It is the focal point of a new dock edge promenade and the anchor of the new park proposed to line the southern edge of the master plan.
At the base, two distinct levels offset from the main tower clearly identify the public components of the project.
Amenities offering services for the public and tower residents activate the waterfront, park, and residential gardens that surround the building.
The new residential tower at Canary Wharf is a singular form expressive of its residential program, the existing and future context, and its role as both a symbol and heart of the new urban development.
It is a tower that mediates between the city and the individual, public and private.
Project: One Park Drive
Architects: Herzog & de Meuron Architekten
Lead Architects: Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, Ascan Mergenthaler, and Wim Walschap
Design Team: John O’Mara, Tobias Schaffrin, Oliver Cooke, Christiane Felber, Iva Smrke, Arrate Abaigar Villota, Roman Aebi ,Farhad Ahmad, Bruno de Almeida Martins, Liliana Filipa Amorim Rocha, Michal Baurycza, Caetano Braga da Costa de Bragança, Blanca Bravo Reyes, Massimo Corradi, Teodor-Octavian Cuciureanu, Duarte de Azevedo Coutinho Lobo Antunes, Dave Edwards, Elizabeth Ferguson, Daniel Fernández, Jason Frantzen, Stefan Goeddertz, James Grainger, Adriana Hernández Arteaga, Shusuke Inoue, Colin Jeffrey, Sara Jiménez Núñez, Vasileios Kalisperakis, Yasmin Kherad,, Maria Krasteva, Lap Chi Kwong, Isabel Labrador, Victor Lefebvre, Áron Lőrincz, Johnny Lui, Luke Lupton, Carmo Montalvão, Alexandros Mykoniatis, João Nunes, Cristian Oprea, Mònica Ors Romagosa, Martina Palocci, Svetlin Peev, David Pfister, Zaïra Pourier, Ebanie Powell, Francisco Ramos Ordóñez, Rebecca Roberts, Eduardo Salgado Mordt, Günter Schwob, Kristine Šulca, Nuria Tejerina, Raúl Torres Martín, Philip Turner, Francesco Valente-Gorjup, Tommaso Villa, Toru Wada, and Jean-Paul Willemse
Masterplan Architects: Allies & Morrison
Landscape Architects: Wirtz International
Executive Architect: Adamson Associates
Structural Engineers: AKT II
MEP Engineers: Sweco
Interior Designers, L00-01: GA-Design
Interior Designers, L02-09 & L32: Bowler James
Interior Designers, L10-31 & L33-55: Goddard Littlefair
Interior Designers, L56-57: Herzog & de Meuron
Client: Canary Wharf Group
Photographers: Lee Mawdsley
