Fletcher Priest Architects

Central St. Giles Court

Central St. Giles Court
© Fletcher Priest Architects

CENTRAL ST. GILES COURT

Renzo Piano + Fletcher Priest Architects

LOCATION
St Giles High St, Westminster, London WC2H 0, UK

STRUCTURE
Ove Arup & Partners

PRE CONSTRUCTION ADVICE
Bovis Lend Lease

LIGHTING
P.Castiglioni / G.Bianchi

LANDSCAPING
Charles Funke Associates

CHOTOST CONSULTANT
Davis Langdon

PHOTOGRAPHS
Michel Denance, Joost Moolhuijzen

Central St. Giles Court
© Fletcher Priest Architects

Text description provided by architect.

The proposed concept for the site was to transform a single-use office building into a genuinely mixed use development incorporating office, retail, restaurant and residential use; seeking to create a new destination integrated within the local area.

Central St. Giles Court
© Fletcher Priest Architects
Central St. Giles Court
© Fletcher Priest Architects

The architects chose to situate the buildings around a new courtyard in the center of the site, which is connected by a publicly accessible route and ground floor public uses to the surrounding streets and spaces.

Central St. Giles Court
© Michel Denance
Central St. Giles Court
© Fletcher Priest Architects

The key elements of the scheme were to introduce activity into the area, provide a mix of uses particularly retail, restaurants and housing introducing daytime and night time surveillance, and creating a properly managed and controlled environment

Which is reflected in the urban design approach to the layout of retail units, spaces and pedestrian routes. Located in Camden, the project is part of a complex urban patchwork of medieval streets, modern buildings and traditional urban blocks.

This environment had a dramatic impact on the design of the project. The scheme is composed of complex volumes, which are characterically chiselled fragmented and reduced in scale to match 

Central St. Giles Court
© Fletcher Priest Architects
Central St. Giles Court
© Fletcher Priest Architects
Central St. Giles Court
© Fletcher Priest Architects

The surrounding buildings. These chiselled volumes mad St-G an impressive architectural sculpture characterized by a combination of shimmering facets.

Each facet is unique, differing in height, orientation, color, and relationship to natural light. Glass, steel and ceramic are the primary elements of the skin.

In each fact the ceramic is used in different shade and colors that respond to the surrounding building, thus helping to integrate the scheme in the immediate urban environment.

Central St. Giles Court
© Fletcher Priest Architects
Central St. Giles Court
© Fletcher Priest Architects

At the core of the scheme there is a large courtyard, where the public activity is concentrated with its cafes and restaurants this piazza will generate social life. Thus enhancing the urban identity of the site.A six-meter full height glass facade provides a maximum of transparency. Five passages through this courtyard allow a permeable scheme and invite passers-by to this piazza shaded by a 20m high tree.


Central St. Giles Court
RPBW Site Plan
Central St. Giles Court
RPBW Sketch
Central St. Giles Court
Central St. Giles Court
Central St. Giles Court
RPBW Plan
Central St. Giles Court
Central St. Giles Court
Central St. Giles Court

Fletcher Priest Architects
T +44 20 70342200
Fletcher Priest Architects
Middlesex House, 34-42 Cleveland St, London W1T 4JE, United Kingdom
Renzo Piano Building Workshop, S.r.l.
T +39 010 61711
Renzo Piano Building Workshop, S.r.l.
Via Pietro Paolo Rubens, 29, 16158 Genova GE, Italy