For 8 Canada Square, we were approached to explore ways of repositioning the existing tower and widening the experience it offers Canary Wharf.
Our proposal reuses the existing structure and adds culture, food, hospitality, residential and workplace uses, giving people more reasons to stay. The result is a building that works harder for its owners, tenants and visitors alike, creating a new destination that not only breathes new life into a classic icon, but also becomes a beacon of culture for Canary Wharf.
8 Canada Square was built for HSBC in 2002 as a 200-metre tall 44 storey building. When the HSBC lease runs out, the building will require major works to be fit for the current market. In that process, Canary Wharf Group needed to know what a tower of this size and with this location could become. Our answer has three parts:
1: Touch the earth lightly through adaptive reuse
One core principle of architectural design at AFK is to develop and reuse the “good bones” of a building, ensuring that a new asset is built with future flexibility in mind, and existing buildings can be retrofitted in ways that saves the most carbon-intensive parts like the frame, core and foundations, while developing new solutions for what needs repositioning.
When developing our approach to 8 Canada Square, we started from the existing structure to test options for what could be retained, what was best to replace, and how different choices would affect the future value of the building. In our most ambitious scheme, “Twist”, we propose to keep 95% of the building, including reusing steel for additional floor area taken from places where we cut out new atriums.
2: Enable iconic destination experiences
Following the rise of remote working opportunities where people can work from anywhere, we concluded that an office tower needs to offer more than rows of traditional desks. We propose a varied, public-facing mix of uses that keeps the whole site, from masterplan to the top of the building, in active use throughout the day and night.
Iconic experiences can be found across the building, which means we maximise activity at a prime site centrally located near excellent transport links that connect this building particularly well with the rest of London. Cultural venues, retail and restaurants located in the podium benefits from the seamless integration with the public realm designed around the building, which enable a vibrant gathering of activity from breakfast coffees to mid-day strolls and great evenings out.
We concluded that the opportunities for iconic experiences at 8 Canada Square didn’t stop at the podium level, and so we designed the top of the tower to equally be a beacon of activity for the public across London. Crowning the building’s top, we propose a public restaurant, gallery and a striking 400-seat theatre event space that draw the public up into the sky like no other building in London does. With a world-class offering at the top, 8 Canada Square takes shape as a pre-eminent destination in London’s iconic cultural landscape.
3: Keep the office investment sound
The existing building was heavily office-led, with little space for tenant amenities or public access that in today’s market would heavily strengthen competitiveness. With major lease changes approaching, this poses a risk we seek to eliminate by integrating a mix of uses for the office tenants alongside incorporating residential floors and a hotel.
Together, the mix of uses diversifies the building’s market exposure while increasing value for each use with dedicated amenities. A comfortable sky lounge provided reserved space for office tenants to relax and refocus, alongside balconies and winter gardens throughout the height of the tower. Retail and cultural amenity at the ground level motivate active use throughout the day, and the event spaces at the top of the building strengthen recognisability and attractiveness as a cultural icon. By diversifying and intensifying the use of the building, our proposal seeks to balance capital cost against the value created, and limit time and planning risk.
How we got there
In the building we inherited, we identified several key challenges:
The floorplates were deep, creating challenging daylight conditions.
The façade's contractual life expires in 2027, and solar gain made the perimeter hard to let.
The lifts and plant were reaching the end of their life.
The EPC rating was D; EPC B is required by 2030.
The structure was the one part that needed little attention: a reinforced concrete core, a steel frame with composite slabs, and a piled raft that still works well. We tested a long list of possible uses with Canary Wharf Group, and judged each against four metrics: demand, cost and impact on the existing building, value created, and planning acceptability.
The upper floors suit public amenity, a luxury hotel and a small number of penthouses.
The middle floors stay as offices, with a mid-brand hotel and build to rent on the lower rise.
The podium's high floor-to-floor heights suit theatres, event venues, food halls and life science laboratories.
The hotel floors were too deep for good rooms, so we carved a three-storey atrium into the plan, enabling the hospitality-led use while creating striking new spaces internally that support brand recognition, orientation, and wellbeing at the same time.
Through rigorous testing to unlock value, our proposal allows 8 Canada Square to keep its structure, gain a wider mix of uses, and stay a sound office investment fit for the future of London.
