The Hive 

Working with Cartwright Pickard has been a pleasure and a joy. As a practice, they are hugely accommodating, flexible, passionate about design and forward thinking. They have delivered for us at the Hive one of the most space-efficient buildings that I have worked on in the last 20 years in the industry.

Jason Margrave, Executive Director - Development, Quintain

Client  Quintain
Location  Wembley Park, London
Completion  2019
Cost  £30m

Services

  • RIBA stages 1-6
  • Feasibility study
  • Architectural design
  • Interior design
  • Construction information
  • Advice on BREEAM

Quintain appointed us to design two neighbouring ‘sister’ buildings within the Wembley Park masterplan – Beton and The Hive – that share a common language but celebrate their different uses. The two buildings are clad in a distinctive glazed brick, have identically proportioned elevations and share the same approach to materials and detailing.

The raw, natural palette of materials chosen for both buildings gives them a strong civic presence and character, with the seven-metre tall glazing to the ground floor commercial spaces providing an animated new frontage to Wembley Park Boulevard.

The Hive is the first office building completed as part of the masterplan and offers 115,000 sqft of flexible office space (and 10,000 sqft of retail). A striking double-height reception area, which can also be used as breakout space, leads to seven floors of office space which are flooded with light and give tenants fantastic views across Wembley Stadium and London.

The Hive

The Hive

The development of a unique and striking reception area was driven by the ambition to create additional facilities for office workers to increase choice of work settings, providing a cafe, breakout and co-working space which is visible from Wembley Park Boulevard.

Originally the reception area was much smaller as there was an additional retail unit at the north-west corner, but as the design developed we expanded the reception to create a more impressive entrance experience which adds value to the building.

The decision to bring the blue bricks of the exterior inside softens the transition from the busy shopping street to the office space, celebrating the quality of the brick and creating a raw, contemporary feel within the reception area and cafe. The spacing of internal piers reflects the spacing of columns externally on the facade, adding to the sense of order.

In addition, an art piece has been specially commissioned for the reception by Vivien Zhang.

The Hive
The Hive

To enable future flexibility, each floor can be let as one or split for two separate tenants. The building is BREEAM Excellent and meets the needs of today’s businesses with highly flexible space and a Wired Score Gold accreditation.

The building is serviced by mechanical ventilation and with fan coil units in suspended ceilings. This gives maximum flexibility in the use of the spaces. Major elements of plant are located on the roof of the building in a dedicated external enclosure. This is sized to allow flexibility for future modification and facilitate plant replacement by external mobile crane. Tenant riser space and roof plant areas are provided to suit tenants future needs.

The brief for the office building was to create highly efficient, Grade A office space that would achieve an occupational density of 1:8sqm. The design successfully achieves this with a net:gross efficiency in excess of 85%.

The Hive
The Hive
The Hive

Subtle variations in the width of windows give a sense of movement to the elevations, while brick soldier courses add interest. The buildings frame views to world-famous Wembley Stadium, and demanded a high-quality architectural response. High quality materials and crisp detailing ensure the architecture is restrained and timeless.

 
Brick detailing with soldier course

Brick detailing with soldier course