Opinion piece: Integrating engineering solutions with space planning

Ivan's opinion piece published recently in RIBA Journal delves into The Emory's design strategy of integrating engineering solutions alongside space planning. Learn about the hotel’s unconventional structure and how it balances load paths to ground in a building with no conventional load-bearing core, while oversailing adjacent subterranean spaces.

19 September 2024.
RIBA Journal - Seductive imagery mustn’t lead to a wasteful design
Words:     Ivan Harbour

The Emory hotel offers lessons in leanness from collaborating engineers, to avoid unnecessary structure or enclosed spaces, so expending less carbon, says RSHP’s Ivan Harbour.

An architect once told me how disappointed he was that the hefty structure holding up his building didn’t match his vision of lightness. No matter, once sandwiched behind a few layers of drywall, his vision was restored.

In the case of RSHP’s design for The Emory hotel in London, the overarching image of the building reflects the most complex of the challenges it had to meet: how to overcome gravity where there was limited opportunity to come to ground? Gravity is a serious matter! Seductive imagery made without its consideration ultimately attracts excessive weight to counteract otherwise destructive forces. Architects cannot afford to be wasteful in this manner; it is our duty to the environment and the economics of construction not to be.

The Emory occupies an extremely confined site, perched above many of the operational spaces that support neighbouring hotel The Berkeley. From the outset, the team was confronted with an inordinate number of technical, spatial and logistics constraints. These ranged from the site’s close proximity to Piccadilly Line tunnels, working alongside a hotel with over 90 per cent occupancy, to having to share many common facilities and the need to maximise room space without affecting accessibility in use, all on a very tight site. 

The project has revealed a level of spatial and logistic complexity that would normally be lost in a building’s ‘fat’ – its wall linings and backrooms.

Rather than resolving these challenges on an ad-hoc basis, we collectively adopted a clear design strategy, integrating the engineering solutions alongside space planning, to inform how we could problem-solve while maintaining the integrity of the concept from which we ultimately evolved the architectural response. Resolving these constraints has generated a building uniquely defined by its location and a bespoke hotel in itself.

Read the full article:     RIBA Journal - Seductive imagery mustn’t lead to a wasteful design

Discover more about the project and full team on the project page:    The Emory.