Stories from London
World first innovations make work feel like floating on air
Bloomberg European Headquarters
Location: London, UK
Completed: 2017
Floors: 9
Size: 102,000 m²
The destination control system for optimized people flow
Never-before-seen tech delivers both spectacle and sustainability
Bloomberg London connects the past to the present. The European headquarters of the U.S. company – one of the world's most celebrated media organizations, employs over 4 000 people in the building, which is situated on the site of the restored Roman-era Temple of Mithras. Protecting this kind of history, whilst ensuring the highest present-day standards for sustainability is, "a very challenging thing to achieve architecturally,” says Bloomberg Project Director Kathryn Mallon, who oversaw the development.
And yet, the central London edifice is a triumph of modern design innovation. Built around a desire to encourage collaboration, reflect transparency (quite literally), and safeguard the building's functionality and aesthetic appeal for the next generation, the project yielded world first solutions to complex problems with outstanding results. Bloomberg London showcases the very best of KONE's project management, engineering and technical innovation solutions – making people and the planet the central consideration.
“Conceptually we understood what we wanted to do, but we didn’t know if it was technically possible.
Michael Jones, Foster + Partners
Translating a people-first approach to business – into design
Bloomberg European Headquarters
Form follows function – but for Michael Bloomberg, it was key that excecution mirrors ethos. Transparency and collaboration are the key foundations that have made Bloomberg so successful, and reflecting these factors in the architectural foundations of such an important international outpost was paramount.
Tasked with bringing this brief to life were architects Foster + Partners, whose scheme for the building uplift put people and sustainability first, marrying design ingenuity with visionary aesthetics: "From the outset, we knew we wanted to take the core out of the middle of the building, push it to the edges, and put people at the heart of the structure,” says Michael Jones, senior partner at Foster + Partners and lead architect for Bloomberg. “It’s less about a prescriptive way of moving through buildings, and more about an intuitive way, one that people can enjoy and prosper from."
Making the impossible possible
Bloomberg European Headquarters
“Pushing all the core and vertical elements to the perimeter presented a whole series of different challenges, key to which was delivering a set of elevators that were as clean, transparent and visually permeable as possible,” says Jones. “The all-glass scenic KONE elevators are an integral part of the experience, enabling people to see into and out of the building much more fluidly than you can through a typical elevator shaft.”
In 2013, KONE was awarded the contracts to design, develop, deliver and maintain all the elevators for the building, including the 18 unique, scenic lifts. This became one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken by the company.
The design challenge from Foster + Partners was for the elevator cars to be constructed entirely from glass, with no essential equipment visible from the outside or the inside. Other solutions included the building’s firefighting and goods delivery elevators as well as an elevator taking visitors to the Temple of Mithras.
“The most unusual part of this job was related to the design of the 32-person elevators themselves, where we have what is known as an unbalanced ‘rucksack arrangement’. Here –against all the principles of statically balanced cars required to meet ride comfort criteria – the elevator car is hoisted solely by a sling attached to the rear of the 6,000 kg car!”
KONE Senior Project Manager Chris Edwards
Thanks to extensive testing and product development, including the construction of a three-stop life-sized prototype, the special arrangement offers an incredibly smooth ride while hiding all of the necessary technology under the floor of the elevator car. This allows an unobscured view through the entire glass elevator bank.
“All the door gears, air conditioning and Wi-Fi needed to be underneath the car, whereas they would normally be on top,” says Edwards, adding that only a handful of standard elevator features could be used.
“These types of lifts had never been engineered before in the history of lift manufacturing. They were a complete innovation,” says Bloomberg’s Mallon. “The ride is fantastic. The way it makes you feel like you’re floating on air, it comes to such a soft landing at every floor plate, it’s quiet, you don’t hear a thing. It’s a really, really unique experience. I wish everyone in London could ride these lifts.”
From Hyvinkää to the streets of London
“Pushing all the core and vertical elements to the perimeter presented a whole series of different challenges, key to which was delivering a set of elevators that were as clean, transparent and visually permeable as possible,” says Jones. “The all-glass scenic KONE elevators are an integral part of the experience, enabling people to see into and out of the building much more fluidly than you can through a typical elevator shaft.”
In 2013, KONE was awarded the contracts to design, develop, deliver and maintain all the elevators for the building, including the 18 unique, scenic lifts. This became one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken by the company.
The design challenge from Foster + Partners was for the elevator cars to be constructed entirely from glass, with no essential equipment visible from the outside or the inside. Other solutions included the building’s firefighting and goods delivery elevators as well as an elevator taking visitors to the Temple of Mithras.
”These glass lifts are my favorite part of the building. I love them. I love that they had never been done before. I love that the KONE engineers decided to take that on as a challenge and decided to innovate and create something different. And partnered with us. They embraced the spirit of the project, which was to create new boundaries, whether it be in architecture or engineering.”
Kathryn Mallon, Bloomberg Project Director
Bespoke solutions for people and place
How smart solutions delivered a people flow uplift
KONE collaborated closely with Bloomberg and Foster + Partners to deliver bespoke elevator solutions that matched the building’s architectural philosophy and operational needs.
Results of the modernization
