Space House

Completed in 2024, the pioneering Grade II-listed Space House in Covent Garden has been sensitively refurbished and extended by Seaforth Land with Squire & Partners. The ambitious retrofit has created high-quality workspace, contemporary and flexible retail space at ground floor, and an improved public realm.

Space House was built by Richard Seifert and Partners in 1968 and is known for its innovative architecture, with a striking grid-like precast concrete façade. The distinctive cylindrical tower and rectilinear block were refurbished in 1996 and again in 2003. Squire & Partners’ designs remove the layers of subsequent interventions to retain, expose and celebrate the original architecture, whilst creating new, complementary additions to accommodate modern working environments. The existing buildings have been reimagined, with two floors of office accommodation added to the tower and a single-storey extension to the block. The extension of the existing 17-storey tower tidies up the rooftop plant, reinstating the building’s original design intent for a clean set-back top floor whilst creating a 3,600 sq ft roof terrace. The new eighth floor of the block provides meeting rooms and a club house comprised of a bar and 5,000 sq ft terrace accessible to all tenants. Originally built in an era advanced by the popularity of the automobile, the proposals reinvent the car-centric elements of the building for the future. A ramp to the basement is retained to provide dedicated cycle access to end of journey facilities, with the existing car park providing expansive cycle storage for over 600 bikes. Elsewhere, a void that punctures the two-storey basement provides a 16,500 sq ft flexible double-height event space. Occupants are welcomed by a spacious, double-height lobby and reception at the base of the tower. The 10,000 sq ft circular, column-free floorplates are flooded with natural light, with the top ten floors providing unobstructed 360-degree views of the city. In the block, an intimate lobby leads to eight floors, each comprising 8,000 sq ft of workspace. The link bridge creates contiguous workspace on the first and second floors, and a garden terrace on the third. The egalitarian workspaces at Space House feature long sightlines, offering high levels of visual connectivity to support collaborative working. Designed in a loft style, offices feature polished concrete floors, while common areas are finished in new terrazzo flooring, and the original mosaic tiling in the stair cores is retained. At ground level, an existing onsite petrol station canopy at the base of the tower has been enclosed to become The Filling Station restaurant, activating the street and opening it up to public use. The existing poor-quality public realm, previously used as a car park, has been enhanced to provide links between the retail in the two buildings. Space House aims to be one of the first listed buildings in London to achieve BREEAM ‘Outstanding’. A new, high-performing services installation utilises air source heat pumps, and heating and cooling are provided by bespoke chilled beams – designed to fit seamlessly within the existing radial ceiling coffers. The building’s purposeful massing and strongly