Today’s London skyline is vastly different to the one we saw a decade ago. Cranes feature heavily, signifying further changes are to come. With planning permission regularly being granted, London’s skyline is sure to transform rapidly over the next few years.

Stratford, Canary Wharf, and Lambeth will most likely dominate with new construction. However, new high-rise buildings are due for completion in the heart of London and many of the skyscrapers being built across London are largely for residential use or combined with office workspace.

Roofing for the Environment

The Manhattan Plaza in Tower Hamlets development was inspired by New York’s Meatpacking District. Within the 42-story building are dwellings, leisure facilities including a swimming pool, a spa, and a roof garden that overlooks Olympic Park. It also features sky gardens so that residents always have access to an outdoor space within nine stories from wherever they live in the building.  This is particularly important for the environment too whilst also providing a habitat for wildlife.

BRAC Contracts is proud to have as part of its portfolio, projects that include the addition of biodiverse living roofs (or green roof) which also provide benefits to the environment, a home for wildlife as well as reducing the run off from storm water.

Creative Architecture

Due to be completed this year, The Atlas in Lambeth is a triangular-shaped building which will be used mainly as student accommodation. To retain the manufacturing heritage of the area it is planned to clad it with glazed and unglazed ceramic tiles in shades of warm earthy tones. The use of lighter shades in the cladding at the top of the building will give the building a unique speckled appearance.

When BRAC Contracts were approached by Brent Council to design and build a new public toilet facility, we had to ensure it too would be in keeping with the locality and aspirations of the area under regeneration.  The external material of the building was made from gold aluminium with perforated holes. These holes have two roles; to let natural light in to the building and also to allow light out when it’s dark. The end result is particularly striking.

Regeneration & Refurbishment

As part of the regeneration of the South Bank, Embassy Gardens in Wandsworth overlooks the River Thames. The development has a park, two residential towers both of which will be linked by a “Sky Pool”. It is also to be the home of the new US Embassy imminently.

BRAC Contracts have also worked on foreign diplomatic property. Australia House, home to the Australian High Commission, is the longest continuously occupied foreign mission in London. We stripped out and replaced the old roof in keeping with its heritage ensuring minimum disruption to the day to day operations.

Whilst BRAC Contracts may not have changed London’s skyline, we’ve certainly helped to transform the landscape of London’s neighbourhoods. We offer fit out, design and build, renovation and refurbishment services. So if you would like to discuss any project mentioned here or a project that you feel is suitable for BRAC Contracts then please contact Adam Clark on adam@brac-contracts.co.uk, telephone 01268 573933 or click here.