Located in the City of London, New Street Square Bridges play a key role in the ongoing development of Deloitte’s central London office campus.  The new bridges connect 1 and 2 New Street Square which, built 15 years apart, are different in design with a change in levels between them. The brief was to connect two different client facing areas on the respective first floors of each building, and two staff-only areas, including the main restaurant, on the 7th floor.  The design responds imaginatively to multiple constraints; the level change, the interface with contrasting building faces, the need to provide adequate step free access, the desire to provide more than a transitional space on the bridge itself and a planning requirement stipulating lightness of appearance and transparency.

The team, including engineers Eckersley O’Callaghan, came up with the concept of a switchback ramp on each bridge that dealt with the level change entirely within the bridge environment itself. An inclusive arrangement of steps and ramps, different for each bridge, resolves accessibility requirements as simply as possible, avoiding the need for a platform lift and loss of valuable floorspace within either building. The ramp also allows for breakout areas on the bridge itself, creating spaces to sit and collaborate, turning these otherwise transitional environments into part of the wider office. The result leaves the bridges feeling as an extension of the floorplates at both levels rather than just a bridge between them.