Location: London, United Kingdom.

Architect: Squire & Partners.

Clarges Mayfair is a mixed-use development by British Land that includes residential apartments, workspace, restaurant, and retail. The development comprises 34 private residences and 11 affordable apartments, with 24% of the affordable homes being fully adaptable. The design of the development is contemporary and refined, with four distinct buildings that address the client’s brief to create a cohesive development with an authentically Mayfair character. The interiors feature classic materials such as bronze, marble, plaster, and porcelain, with bespoke interiors concepts in each apartment. The development also includes resident facilities such as a private cinema room, state-of-the-art gym, hydrotherapy pool, sauna, and steam room. The site overlooking Green Park was subject to stringent constraints due to its prestigious setting on Piccadilly. The team sought to create the maximum benefit from the Rights of Light restrictions of the tight site by creating a series of terraces that step back at the upper levels. Ashburton Place, a new public mews, connects Clarges Street and Bolton Street and is the first new street in Mayfair for 15 years. The new route opens up the site, providing physical and visual permeability through it, whilst retail, restaurant and gallery-style reception spaces enliven the street frontages. Off-site prefabrication was used extensively in the construction of the development, including all structure, floor, cladding, and service components. This ensured an efficient, coordinated delivery and construction program, minimized personnel onsite, and secured a consistently high quality of finish. The energy strategy for Clarges Mayfair followed the Mayor’s Energy Hierarchy, with investment in high-performance building fabric and energy-efficient engineering systems, together with combined heating and power, ground source heat pumps, and roof-mounted photovoltaics. A 45% improvement in carbon reduction over Building Regulations 2010 Part L was achieved. Clarges Mayfair responds to the grain and character of the area, opens up the site to create new public space, and provides an enlivened sense of place to a previously unsightly 1960s block. The development has a positive social, environmental, and economic impact, and sets a new benchmark for residential spaces in Mayfair, bringing some of the finest homes to London with a crisp, timeless design that draws upon the historic context, each detail designed to embody Mayfair’s illustrious history.

Photo credit: James Jones, Gareth Gardner.