(for Allford Hall Monaghan Morris)

While at Allford Monaghan Morris, Chikako was a senior member of the team for this redevelopment of the former WC1 mail sorting office in central London. Prominently located between the districts of Bloomsbury and Covent Garden, the sorting office was built in the 1960s and had been derelict for the last 20 years. Drawing on the industrial scale and character of the building, the proposals for its reinvention included office and retail spaces, the required affordable housing, a new GP surgery and a range of public open spaces including a new publicly accessible roof terrace.  

The scheme takes the unique existing structural frame as the starting point and proposes a lightweight cladding system composed of a series of frames that hold either a solid panel or a window. A language of frame, window and solid panel is used at different depths and scales across the building to give a varied and adaptable facade that unites the existing structure while responding to the surrounding context. 

The material expression of the proposals has been developed to give a clear identity to the building that develops inherited industrial qualities and expresses the language of assembly in relation to the sites former use.  

Project Data : https://www.ahmm.co.uk/projectDetails/171/The-Post-Building