Firm： Bennetts Associates

Type： Commercial › Office

STATUS： Built

YEAR： 2014

SIZE： 100,000 sqft - 300,000 sqft

5 Pancras Square is a confident statement of social, economic and environmental sustainability. Mixed uses aimed at serving the whole local community are prominently displayed; long term flexibility and low operational costs underpin economic performance; very low carbon and high standards of well-being greatly reduce environmental impacts. In particular, At the time of completion, the building is integrated with the King’s Cross development’s power generation network, helping it to reach one of the highest overall BREEAM scores for a building of its type in the UK.

With a public library, service centre, gym and swimming pools beneath ten floors of office accommodation, the new building has enabled the London Borough of Camden to significantly improve its face-to-face customer services. And, by co-locating several previously disparate departments into one open volume, the new offices have been a catalyst for a dramatic change in the working culture. Greater interaction and collaboration between departments has enabled substantial efficiencies and operational cost savings.

The project has also transformed the environmental impact of the council. It is an exemplar of an environmental building in an-inner city context, which achieves the highest standards of environmental sustainability for a major office development, using a combination of complementary passive and active design features to obtain very low carbon emissions. These include the use of low glazing ratios and an energy-efficient ventilation system.