Hyatt Place, London City East

Location

London

Main contractor

Galliford Try

Sub contractor

A2O Facades

Architects

Studio Moren

Products

Corium Brick Cladding

Overview

Hyatt Place, London City East is a nine-storey hotel located in Whitechapel, just a stone’s throw from the iconic Brick Lane, Spitalfields Market and Shoreditch. Located on a site that was previously home to a seven-storey office block built in the 1980s, architects Dexter Moren Associates (now Studio Moren) were appointed by client Resolution Property to reconfigure the existing footprint and design a new facade for the Hyatt hotel.

Taylor Maxwell worked alongside A2O Facades to supply Corium brick cladding (manufactured by Wienerberger), to the project, which was specified by the architects to replace the outdated and weathered stone facade. The development was managed by main contractors Galliford Try.

Concept

It was decided early in the refurbishment process that the original concrete structure would be retained to save overall time on site and reduce the usage of materials. This was an important decision for the project team as one of the planning conditions was that the hotel would be built to achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating. This meant that the team had to ensure responsible sourcing of materials and design the building to be as energy efficient as possible.

The architects wanted to achieve a durable and high-quality facade that could offer a modern take on a traditional building envelope, with the design of the façade initially approved with linear bricks as the main material. Upon further planning of the refurbishment, it was found that the brick that was originally specified didn’t align with the project budget and would also incur lengthy construction times. Therefore, the architects reviewed their material options and instead selected Corium brick cladding, as it was able to achieve a similar facade design and provided a number of other benefits including time and cost efficiency.

Completion

Corium offered the perfect alternative to a traditional linear brick, as it can be supplied as a 290mm tile in a close visual match to the desired brick. As well as offering a similar finish, Corium brick cladding was able to offer installation times of up to four times faster than traditional brickwork, reducing overall time and cost of construction. Corium brick tiles are also produced as a finished product, meaning they use on average 75% less material than traditional facing bricks.

The brick cladding was selected in a blue grey tile to achieve the dark and sleek facade design that the architects desired. The dark colour of the tile contrasts with the gold curtain walling, creating a striking and unique envelope, which simultaneously works well within the surrounding architectural context.

Since completion, the project has been shortlisted for a number of awards; ’Best Adaptive Reuse’ at the 2024 Urban Living Impact Awards, ‘Retail and Hospitality’ at the 2022 New London Architecture Awards and ‘Hospitality’ at the 2022 Built Design Awards. Alongside these recognitions, the project also won in the ‘Sustainability’ category at the 2024 AHEAD Awards Europe. This is a credit to the hard work the project team put in to ensure the sustainability credentials of the development.

To find out more about Corium brick cladding, click here.