Travelodge London Docklands
Sustainable budget luxe by Travelodge
We were the lead architect and designers on this 18-storey, 350-room new build hotel. The London Docklands Travelodge hotel is the company’s first new-build premium budget luxe hotel design. It replaces an existing Travelodge on an adjacent site. The new hotel accommodates more guestrooms and also features Travelodge’s new super rooms as a Travelodge Plus.
Sustainability
London Docklands Travelodge has a BREEAM Excellent rating and an Energy Performance Certificate rating of A. The hotel features a biodiverse brown roof, air source heat pumps and solar PV arrays. A pocket park at the grand entrance area provides amenity space for the public, hotel staff and hotel guests.
A pedestrian walkway enhances the existing public realm along the cycle super highway which borders the site. A 1100sq m green hedge buffer and a corner park contains a selection of native species, as well as a memorial for the former dock wall. Other sustainable initiatives, include a carpet made from recycled fishing nets made in support of clean ocean initiatives. The hotel also features low energy lighting and motion sensing.
As so much of the industrial history of the Docklands has been lost in recent years we were keen to incorporate this into the design. We designed the tower as a retrained industrial form in terms of its materials, details, texture and colour. The articulation and materiality of the base provides a simple grounding to the floors above. A giant concrete-effect beam and corner columns produce the impression that the weight of the tower is distributed to each corner of the podium. By contrast, the light, glazed restaurant element feels like it is hanging from the structure above. The double-height entrance glazing, combined with the generous double-height entrance area, defines the building’s main entrance.
The middle floors form the bulk of the external facade and are articulated with a restrained palette of materials evocative of giant steel work sections, reflecting the industrial maritime heritage of the site and its surroundings.
The metal and glass used in the top floors of the building create variety through differing colours and textures. An elegant composition that crowns the building through the narrowing of the folded aluminium cladding and an increase in the grey perforated metal infill. The junction between the top and the middle has been defined with a “plimsoll line” in the form of a subtle line around the whole the building. Variety is created through the use of different colours and textures. The ability to pre-fabricate the facade has become a key factor in its design characteristic.
- Client
- Tarragon Development
- Location
- London, United Kingdom
- Status
- Completed 2022
- Uses
- Hotel
- Size
- 350 keys
- Photos
- Stewart Writtle