Works have completed on Savills’ striking new digs on Kensington Church Street. The “unapologetically modern” seven-storey mixed-use building, designed by SPPARC Architecture, runs to some 17,000 square feet and includes three floors of office space for Savills plus four very high-end residential apartments.
145 Kensington Church Street – branded as “The Lantern” – was developed jointly by Savills Investment Management and Unbranded Properties.
The block, right in the midst of the Kensington Conservation Area, “draws its design inspiration from the unique candle-making heritage of the area”, say its architects, who wax on to argue that it has “bound together the old and the new and deftly navigated the tight constraints of a sensitive conservation area to create a unique and characterful building.” The main façade, it’s said, “resembles the candle creation process in which wax was heated in a dipping container,” with some specially-developed precast panels containing a quartz aggregate that gives a “shimmering effect”.
Four three-bedroom residential apartments occupy the second to fifth floors, featuring floor-to-ceiling openable windows and interiors finished with white-washed oak. A rooftop terrace serves one of the two lateral apartments, whilst the two duplex apartments get balcony spaces and winter gardens.
Two units remain on the open market (marketed by Savills and Russell Simpson); after reductions, they are now priced at £4.45m for a second floor apartment (1,924 square feet; c.£2,313 psf) and £4.95m for the fourth/fifth-floor penthouse (1,894 square feet; c.£2,614 psf).
The office space, which fronts directly onto Kensington Church Street, is served with bike storage and shower facilities at the basement level.
Ten-year-old practice SPPARC Architects’ other projects include Kensington Olympia, Borough Yards and The Music Box.
Trevor Morriss, Principal at SPPARC: “We are delighted to have completed this prominent contemporary building within the heart of the Kensington Conservation Area. The scheme balances matters of scale, material quality and functionality to achieve a building which has distinctive architecture whilst sensitively cohabiting with the surrounding heritage context.”
Development Teamsheet
- Developer: 145 Kensington Management Ltd
- Architect: SPPARC Architecture
- Structural Engineer: Pell Frischmann
- Planning Consultant: Deloitte Real Estate
- Cost Consultant: Gleeds Cost Management Ltd
- Environmental Consultant / Energy Consultant: Capita Symonds
- Conservation/Townscape: Richard Coleman City Designer
- Building Services Engineer: Capita Symonds
- Landscape Architect: SPPARC Architecture
- Archaeology: RPS Group
- Building Control: Assent
- Air Quality: Air Quality Consultants Ltd
- Acoustic: Equus Partnership
- Fire Engineer: Pell Frischmann
- Sunlight & Daylight / Rights Of Light: Savills
- Breeam: Dalen
