The Parcels Building
Perched above Britain’s busiest shopping street and the historic Mail Rail sorting office, The Parcels Building has been reimagined as a net-zero carbon workplace and retail destination.
Its quiet brilliance lies in what you don’t see - the hidden engineering and imaginative thinking that gave the building a new lease of life. We worked with, not against, the constraints of the existing 1950s structure, unlocking its full potential through restrained and intelligent interventions.
The result is a confident addition to the Oxford Street frontage. A new Portland stone façade quietly echoes neighbouring Selfridges, while inside the building features 130,000 square feet of lettable space, including a striking double-height event space, flag retail units on Oxford Street and boutique shops along Duke Street.
- Architect
- Grafton Architects | Piercy&Co (Interiors)
- Client
- Duke Street Property
- Location
- London, UK
Awards
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2024 RIBA London Award
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2024 Schüco Excellence Awards - Overall Winner, Refurbishment & Adaptive Reuse Winner
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2023 AJ Architecture Awards - Refurbishment of the Year
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2023 Society of Façade Engineering Awards
Impact
The Parcels Building features as a best practice case study in the London Property Alliance’s research paper, Retrofit First, Not Retrofit Only.
It exemplifies how 20th-century buildings can be retained, revitalised, and repositioned for contemporary use through carbon-conscious design and technical ingenuity, avoiding demolition and championing urban regeneration.
We extended the building’s usable life through careful assessment and targeted strengthening. Avoiding demolition and making retention a viable option both structurally and commercially.
Using a lightweight hybrid CLT and steel frame structure, we introduced an additional storey and increased floor area without necessitating widespread strengthening. This low-carbon approach reduced material use, minimised embodied carbon, and maximised lettable space.
Approach
Working with the Structure
From the outset, the client advocated retaining the existing 1950s structure – a challenge the design team embraced. To address the ageing structure, which presented inherent limitations in strength and uniformity, we developed a pragmatic retrofit strategy grounded in extensive surveys and targeted investigations, to identify where remediation was necessary.
Strengthening was limited to where load increases demanded it, and, where required, carbon fibre reinforcement was applied with surgical precision. These interventions avoided the need for full-scale strengthening works and retained 92.5% of the existing structure.
Engineering the Cantilevered Façade
The new Portland Whitbread stone façade projects up to 1.5m from the existing frame. To support this, we developed a bespoke bracketry system that clamps directly to existing perimeter columns, transferring overturning forces back to the primary structure without overloading it.
This hidden solution enabled a bold architectural vision that ties The Parcels Building to its neighbours without necessitating extensive strengthening works to beams and columns.
Lightweight CLT Extension
We used a hybrid system of CLT floor panels and steel frames to introduce new storeys without requiring additional strengthening. This lightweight, low-carbon solution introduced additional usable space while keeping additional loads to a minimum, aligning with the client's net zero ambitions and preserving the structural integrity.
Quote
‘The most impressive part of this project is almost what you can’t see.’ The project team ‘really thought imaginatively about taking this building into another use and life’
Engineering Solutions
The new Portland Whitbread stone façade projects up to 1.5m from the existing frame. To support this, we developed a bespoke bracketry system that clamps directly to existing perimeter columns, transferring overturning forces back to the primary structure without overloading it.
Finalisation
