A METABOLIC RETROFITTING OF FERRIER POINT - EAST LONDON

The concept for the retrofitting of Ferrier Point consists of the disgregation of the tower. Creating spaces for the residents by carving out pieces of the building and dismantling the traditional formula of a seamless, inert totem to create new living spaces resulting from the creation of solids and voids, which will also bring the possibility for public gardens and urban farming to be added within the tower. Metabolically-designed architecture is built around a spine-like infrastructure (in this case the existing structural system) with prefabricated, replaceable cell-like parts, easily attached and readily removable when their lifespan is over. The addition of sunrooms to each apartment will make up for the removal of space at the center of the tower. This will further allow for better thermal comfort in the winter thanks to the solar gains while avoiding overheating during the summer thanks to the implementation of window fixtures that can be opened, effectively turning the sunrooms into balconies, and a new open core that will create the possibility for buoyancy and wind-driven stack effect ventilation. These passive strategies combined with materials with better insulation properties will lead to a more energy-efficient building and a smaller carbon footprint.