ARCHITECTURAL FOCUS
SPACE HOUSE
THE REIMAGINING OF A BRUTALIST ICON
Squire & Partners has sensitively refurbished and extended the iconic Grade II-listed Space House in Covent Garden for Seaforth Land and QuadReal. The ambitious retrofit creates 255,000 sq ft of highquality workspace, contemporary and flexible retail space at ground floor, and an improved public realm. The revitalisation of the landmark has preserved and enhanced the building to allow people to work and socialise in and around its outstanding 20th century architecture once more.
A symbol of the 1960s commercial property boom, Space House was designed by Richard Seifert and Partners and is known for its innovative architecture, with a distinctive cylindrical tower with a precast cruciform façade sat on y-shaped columns, a rectilinear block, and connecting bridge which were designed as a response to the surrounding urban context.
Built in 1968, Space House was inhabited exclusively by the Civil Aviation Authority until 2019. Having been refurbished in 1996 and again in 2003, Squire & Partners’ designs remove the layers of subsequent interventions to retain, expose, and celebrate the original architecture, whilst creating new, complementary additions to accommodate modern working environments.
The existing buildings have been reimagined, with two floors of office accommodation added to the tower and a single-storey extension to the block. The
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