t’s unusual to be ofered chocolate irst thing in
the morning, especially on an uncharacteristically
hot summer day in London. Yet today, visitors to
Thomas Heatherwick’s HQ are greeted by an array
of delicious-looking cocoa models of Coal Drops Yard –
his studio’s latest project – vacuum-formed from 3D
prints. ‘When I irst saw the site’s existing buildings
I thought they were like those KitKat ingers, with
a bite taken out of one, so it is shorter,’ Heatherwick
ofers in explanation. He is referring to the pair of long,
19th-century buildings in which coal was sorted as
it arrived by train at London’s King’s Cross station
from the north of England. Now Heatherwick Studio
has transformed this piece of Victorian industrial
engineering into a new retail hub.
Heatherwick, whose studio has been based in
King’s Cross since 2002, has seen the area grow from
a budding regeneration hotspot into a thriving –
and still developing – community that is often used
as an example of successful urban planning. Developer
Argent has invested time, thought, energy and massive
funds to rejuvenate the quarter. ‘They turned it
into a great thing,’ says Heatherwick. ‘King’s Cross
is this perfect storm of location, accessibility and
beautiful place-making, with both modern architecture
and historic fabric that creates a sense of place,’ says
Craig White, Argent’s senior project director for retail.
‘It’s like a microcosm of the West End, fused with the
elemental – water and sky.’Coal Drops Yard is only one of Heatherwick’s projects
for this vast site – his Google HQ, designed together
with BIG, is still a work in progress – but it holds a
special place in his heart. ‘Of the whole of this area, this
is the point that is the most accessible to people, and
it is also the last heritage site to be developed,’ he says.
When Argent approached Heatherwick, the
developer’s plans featured two bridges and a viaduct
level to connect the two buildings. Drawing on
their own experience in retail with Hong Kong’s
Paciic Place, team Heatherwick decided to make some
changes. ‘Flow is absolutely key in this type of project,’
Heatherwick explains. ‘You want someone to move
almost unthinkingly through the space, so inding the
right shapes and connections was crucial.’ The existing
buildings’ linearity was down to their old function,
and the brief was adjusted to it the new use.
‘We needed a third element to bring together the
existing buildings as a new, single and coherent whole,’
continues Heatherwick. ‘We knew the roof needed
rebuilding anyway, so we thought, could we use the
roof to unite everything? English Heritage was very
supportive of the solution.’ By designing a third level
under two ‘kissing’ roofs, he killed two birds with one
stone. The two structures were brought together,
creating the all-important retail-friendly low, while
also maintaining the site’s duality.
The design ofered a strong, signature shape that
quickly became the project’s visual shorthand. Both »I
Photography: Hufton + CrowArchitecture