Twickenham Civic Centre

If there’s one thing we’ve learned makes better buildings, it’s empathy. Architecture never happens in isolation—and simply by being interested and engaged, we’ve found it’s possible to open up the conversations that connect a scheme to its clients and community.

We believe that the more constraints there are, the better the architecture. If there aren’t any constraints, we create them. Challenging sites, existing buildings and complex briefs almost always present incredible opportunities for great design.

To limit our environmental impact, we start with what is already there. By manipulating the form and fabric of a building—whether new or existing—we can work with the existing conditions of topography, light and orientation, and harness the natural energy sources offered by air, ground and water.

If a site’s constraints guide the bigger design decisions, then it’s empathy that informs the smaller, social details. These details frame the human narratives that aren’t included in the brief, anticipating specific moments in the users’ lives.

Good architecture is as much about what happens on the building site as it is about what’s on the drawing board. By working alongside contractors as well as clients we can ring-fence the ideas and details that matter, championing quality and sustainability throughout construction.

Twickenham Civic Centre

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Work

Twickenham Civic Centre
Twickenham, London

Client

London Boroughs of Richmond and Wandsworth

Sat within the Twickenham Riverside Conservation Area are a range of building types with varying levels of heritage significance that make up the Twickenham Civic Centre Campus for the London Boroughs of Richmond and Wandsworth. Notably, the Civic Centre is a post-modern 1990's adaption to an existing Victorian façade, triangular shaped in plan with a central atrium that rises through the building featuring a glazed pyramidal roof. Currently home to public facing services and private tenants for the borough, the vision is to create an active and accessible, multiuse civic hub that consolidates other organisations with Council services into the Civic Centre and adjacent campus buildings.

CLTH are lead-consultant on the decarbonisation strategy for the project, co-ordinating the internal space planning with the new proposed Mechanical and Electrical works that will see the decommission of gas boilers, adapting the existing plant to improve the heating and cooling and upgrading lighting to LED, therefore increasing the buildings lifespan while decreasing its carbon footprint.

The project will deliver on building performance improvements in line with the Richmond Climate Emergency Strategy (RCES).