LDN Collective has led a multi disciplinary study that sets out a ‘retrofit-first’ alternative for Bastion House and the former Museum of London site at London Wall West.

The City asked LDN Collective to review an existing consent that proposed full demolition and replacement office towers. The earlier scheme had faced strong concerns over heritage, whole life carbon, community impact and deliverability on a sensitive central London site.

In response, LDN Collective assembled and led a team of architects, engineers, sustainability and commercial specialists to test how retaining and adapting the existing structures could unlock better social, environmental and economic outcomes. The work shows how Bastion House and the podium can be renewed as a mixed use city quarter, with improved public realm, new homes and hotel uses, flexible workspace and active ground floor fronts that connect more strongly with the Barbican and the surrounding streets.

The study demonstrates that a retrofit led approach can significantly reduce embodied carbon, shorten delivery timescales and open up a wider range of funding and partnership options, while addressing many of the concerns that had made the previous scheme so contested.

If you would like to learn more about our work at London Wall West or discuss how a retrofit first strategy could apply to your own complex urban site, please contact the LDN Collective team.