Salvation Army HQ
Delivering the new Salvation Army UK and Ireland Territory's Headquarters in Denmark Hill, London.
The HQ varies between five and six storeys and includes open-plan office space, designed to be flexible and support smart working, arranged around an atrium, accommodating up to 450 employees and Salvation Army officers.
Key points
Appointed on behalf of the Salvation Army to deliver it's new UK and Ireland territorial headquarters in Denmark Hill, neighbouring the site of William Booth College, arguably the Salvation Army’s spiritual home and its training and education centre since opening in 1929.
Covid-19 delay
We began working under a pre-construction services agreement (PCSA) and were close to starting on site when the Covid-19 pandemic struck in March 2020. The Salvation Army paused the project and decided to review the design. Following the design revision, we started work on another three-month PCSA, which included a significant amount of value engineering.
Other BREEAM points came from the 50% GGBS concrete mix, around 100 solar photovoltaic panels on the roof and point-of-use electric heaters to reduce the amount of central plant.
Works began on site in August 2021.
Reinforced concrete frame
The building has a reinforced concrete frame, which was constructed in situ, one central core with passenger lifts and another core to the south with the goods lift.
The signature interior feature of the new headquarters is the full-building-height atrium, designed to frame the William Booth College tower through the east-facing windows. This is lined with spruce panelling and exposed concrete walls, with a roof light overhead.
Incorporating 3D Laser scan
The atrium’s timber panelling and roof beams were supplied by Wiehag.
A concrete ring beam at level four forms the primary support for the timber and glazing of the roof light structure. McLaren erected a bird cage scaffold inside the atrium, based out from level three, to install the roof light, allowing work to continue on lower floors. The timber beams were lowered in by tower crane.
Externally, the brick facade is built from precast panels faced with brick slips, supplied by Thorp Precast. There were 296 precast panels used in total, the largest weighing 6,916kg, measuring 7.7m by 2.7m.
