Project Spotlight - Travelodge City Road
Specifier
Dexter Moren Architects
Design Requirements
Shackerley has helped Dexter Moren Architects to deliver a landmark 392-bedroom hotel building at Number 1 City Road, London, for the UK’s leading budget hotel brand Travelodge.
The £60m project is Travelodge’s largest hotel to date and is also the biggest low-cost hotel to be built in the capital in over a decade. In a premium location in Central London the ambitious development incorporates the Grade II listed Lowndes House building, constructed in the late 1920s for the Singer sewing machine company. However the bulk of the hotel is a new adjoining seven-storey building featuring Shackerley’s contemporary ceramic granite ventilated facades, specifically designed to reflect the rhythm of the historic building and to follow its neo-Baroque proportions and styling.
Project Architect David Taylor of Dexter Moren said: “It would have been completely unrealistic and prohibitive to clad the elevations of the new building with Portland Stone to replicate the materials used to create the Lowndes House frontages. However, it was important from a conservation and planning viewpoint to employ a façade material that would work in sympathy with the original building. We worked closely with Shackerley and the planners at Islington Borough Council to specify a particular style and colour of ceramic granite in a natural textured finish that would complement the existing Portland Stone, but with a contemporary twist.
He added: “Although this was primarily a new-build project, the new facades were to follow the styling of the original building, which meant that we could not simply use standard modules. We needed to use a material that could be precision cut to very exacting schedules and we required Shackerley to provide all 750 rainscreen façade panels in bespoke sizes”.
Architect David Taylor said: “This high performance material has enabled us to deliver a high quality design solution for a low-cost, budget hotel operation. The ceramic granite facades have ensured that the new part of the hotel complements and reflects one of London’s finest 1920’s buildings.”
Materials Used
Ceramic granite panels in VN3 (OP) were supplied in bespoke sizes range from small and narrow infills up to the largest formats which measured over 1500mm by 1000mm.“.
Each 30mm thick ceramic granite panel was supplied ready to install on site complete with hanging brackets affixed. All fabrication work – cutting, drilling and bracketing - was carried out at Shackerley’s factory.
