In 2003, Land Securities launched a competition to find a world class architect. For one of London’s most prestigious developments. Someone with the extraordinary brilliance, shining talent and rare vision, to design a landmark that would respect its unique historical setting. To create a building of artistic integrity.

They found him in the internationally acclaimed French architect Jean Nouvel.

‘The design of One New Change is about enriching the City with a new sort of modernity, one that reaches beyond itself to speak, to contemplate and to reveal the diverse character of its surroundings. It is a contemporary building which will set up a dialogue with St Paul’s and the neighboring buildings. The proposed design is calm and deferential to St Paul’s Cathedral and provides a unique opportunity to bring the public into the site.‘ – JEAN NOUVEL

One New Change is currently under construction and will open in autumn 2010.

Building Description:

Land Securities’ One New Change is a landmark 560,000sq ft retail and office development.

Designed by one of the world’s premier architects, Jean Nouvel, One New Change is an iconic, world-class building which will offer a fresh perspective on the way we work, shop and live in the City.

One New Change will create a new focus in the heart of the City – an iconic, seven-days-a-week, world-class shopping and leisure destination. There will also be a public open space on the roof housing a café/restaurant, which will open up fantastic new views of neighboring St Paul’s Cathedral and more widely across the capital.

The design of One New Change will be both contemporary yet complimentary to Christopher Wren’s baroque masterpiece, St Paul’s. Jean Nouvel has designed buildings across four continents, in cities as wide ranging as Paris, New York, Rio De Janeiro, Tokyo, Madrid and Beijing and has a reputation for providing challenging, original architecture for highly sensitive sites.

The shops and offices are organized around a central hub with the retail units arranged over three floors and the office over the upper floors with public open space at roof level. A panoramic lift set within the central atrium gives the public direct access to the roof and a series of stepped terraces.

The external cladding is carefully designed to give ONC a streamlined, contemporary feel while introducing a dialogue with neighboring buildings. The glass is fritted to achieve a gradual gradation in density from clear to opaque. The treatment of each panel ranges from a clear glass vision area to a matt opaque finish in a range of colors and patterns, responding to the local context of each façade of building. There are 22 different colors and more than 250 different frit patterns on the glass. There are more than 6,300 glass panels of different sizes and shapes, with 4,300 individually unique pieces of glass.

The interior will have a polished feel, while the exterior is opaque and smooth – so One New Change echoes the surrounding stone and brick facades and establishes a dialogue with its neighboring buildings.