Overview
Renders: Courtesy of Robert A. M Stern Architects.
Background: In 2012, a site comprised of Audley Square Garage (5-7 Audley Square), 4 Audley Square, and the Ascott Hotel (49 Hill Street) was acquired by Caudwell properties for £155m. In 2016, Caudwell Properties received planning permission from Westminster City Council to create a super-prime new residential scheme in the fashionable character of Mayfair, London. The aim is to rival properties such as One Hyde Park for the title of the world’s most desirable living space. The development includes the design, erection and construction of 29 private residential units consisting of five townhouses, two executive penthouses, three penthouses and 19 lateral apartments and resident’s facilities including; a gym, swimming pool and spa, creation of roof terraces, car parking and cycle parking with vehicular access, a landscaped courtyard, hard and soft landscaping and plant at roof level.
Our Role
In 2019, Careys (the principal contractor, who will deliver the shell and core basement box and superstructure, ie; the temporary works) appointed Ayesa to assist them with the successful tender for the design and build of Audley Square House. Having worked on the project since 2019, our team was subsequently appointed to provide civil, structural and geotechnical consulting engineering services for the permanent works. In 2022, Mace was appointed as the Construction Manager for the Audley Square Redevelopment to lead the construction process. The project team known as the ‘Audley Square Team’, is raising the benchmark of quality "to exceed the client’s ambition of achieving an unrepeatable super-prime residential development, which surpasses proposed developments in London.”
Challenges & Collaboration
The Audley Square Redevelopment is a tight, highly sensitive site with some heritage-listed structures (Grade 2) requiring careful and well-developed construction management techniques and expertise.
Innovative Construction Sequence
When appointed in 2019, we discussed the merits of and assessed the extent to which the construction sequence could affect the permanent works. Following numerous project discussions, the team implemented a hybrid top-down bottom-up construction sequence to minimise the ground movements to sensitive listed buildings whilst providing space for excavation and construction. The five-storey basement will cover most of the site footprint and will be constructed of RC flat slabs and garden-level transfer slabs, all supported on piled foundations. The site will be split into two zones where this hybrid method of top-down construction (Zone 1 to the west) and open-cut construction (Zone 2 to the east) is being adopted.
"A key benefit of this hybrid construction sequence is that the programme time is shortened and costs thus reduced. This is achieved by the simultaneous top-down construction of the basement levels and the upper floor levels. The open-cut construction excavates to formation level and works as the required temporary propping of progressing works, and secures the boundary and surrounding properties, some of which are Grade 2 listed."
Construction:
The eight-storey superstructure will be constructed using post-tensioned and RC slabs, pre-cast concrete walls and columns, perimeter blade walls and RC columns. There will be two main RC cores to the east and west, providing superstructure slab support, as well as a transfer structure in the form of post-tensioned concrete beams at Level 01. The building will have five basement levels, as well as a garden level, ground floor and seven additional stories above ground.
Benefits from working with Our Agile Team
Collaboration with the contractor works on multiple fronts at Ayesa: we cultivate collaborative relationships from day one with agility and responsiveness, provide leading multidisciplinary expertise with practical buildable solutions, deliver proactive risk management, and establish clear communication and project performance assessments. This project is adhering to ‘Best Practicable Means’ (BPM) principles to achieve best-in-class standards - from the initial concept and construction methodology right through to the design and construction phases. Every site operation is reviewed through BPM principles and recorded in the BPM register. In this way, every phase across the project lifecycle continuously evaluates performance and incrementally monitors and improves delivery, adding value.
Our Points of Difference:
Multidisciplinary Approach: Challenging projects such as ASH (Audley Square House)- require leading multidisciplinary solutions and in this case, conservation expertise as well as civil and structural engineering. Our geotechnical and civil teams have built a reputation for practical, buildable solutions with agility and quick thinking.
Whole Asset/Lifecycle Approach - our multidisciplinary expertise is put to work as we understand and break down project interdependencies and understand how to build value across the entire project lifecycle for everyone on the project team.
Proactive relationships from Day One: The relationship between the contractor and the client is crucial - and we view our team as an extension of the contractor's team to provide that support as and when needed. We bring adaptability across the entire project lifecycle by applying the latest technology but also recognising the changing needs of stakeholders and clients.
Proactive Risk Management: Another key task is to Identify project risks as they become significant at different phases of our scope and assign weighted values to each risk, according to probabilities and impact, to ensure health & Safety throughout the lifecycle.
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