Completed in 2022, Paddington Square provides a new gateway into London from Paddington Station – a public transport hub serving six rail links including the Elizabeth line. Designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Paddington Square is a centerpiece development for the wider district’s regeneration. It includes a world-class mix of shops, cafes, West London’s highest rooftop restaurant and a pedestrianized piazza – centered around an 18-storey glass and steel building for which WSP provided multidisciplinary services.
The consented scheme for the building used gas-fired CHP to produce electricity on site that was intended to be less carbon-intensive than the grid. But by 2018, with renewables already gaining a larger-than-anticipated share of UK energy generation, it was no longer certain that this would be the case by the time the building was complete. So we took the initiative to rework the design to replace the CHP with electric heat pumps and gas backup.