LONGCHAMP ROOF GARDEN | NEW BOND STREET LONDON

Reflecting On The Architecture

​​The consummate expert in luxury Architecture and Design, Eric Carlson, has brought to fruition countless projects across the globe from museums, office headquarters, private residences and of course flagship stores for some of the world's most pre-eminent brands.

The Longchamp New Bond Street building and store design was a series of art & architecture collaborations conducted by CARBONDALE.  Their unique approach was one of coalescing artistic ideas with architectural concepts to create an amalgamation of the brand image and creating a cohesive customer experience.  For the New Bond Street project the New York based artist Maya Hayuk, was selected by CARBONDALE, for her palette of vibrant colours and intricately rich abstract patterns woven together at an architectural scale.

Inspired by Longchamp’s signature “pliage” folded bag, which has sold more than 16 million since 1993, CARBONDALE has lined the 280 m² three storey boutique interior with architectural folding screens of embossed leather, engraved limestone, white lacquer, ebony, walnut and elm wood marquetry, each corresponding to the different product categories of leather goods, clothing and luggage.  Each elongated floor culminates at Maya Hayuk’s 12-meter high by 5-meter wide monumental kaleidoscope of diagonal layers of colours lining the stairwell.  The mural remains distinctive as a work of art, yet integrates into the spatial experience of each level from near and far, while discreetly re-interpreting both the colour spectrum of the “pliage bag” and Longchamp’s traditional “LM criss-cross” motif.

Read more here

What We Did

Charles Moore, Moore Outdoors, contacted UP to collaborate on this fantastic challenge.  He had designed a layout and planting scheme, which had to consider the existing features such as the fire escape, fire hatch, roof light and the emergency evacuation fittings.  We would deliver the hardscape package and he would complete with his soft landscape scheme.

Logistics in Central London are challenging at the best of times.  This project required logistics on another level.  Local Byelaws dictated that all materials had to be delivered between 8am and 11am, however the shop opened to the public at 10am.  The cleaners has to do their service as well, so in reality we had an hour and forty five minutes to move all the materials up through the building. This meant across the ground floor sales area, be passed up through the open stairwell to the second floor where it then had to go up through an internal fire escape to the terrace.  Through the whole event we had a team of cleaners following along behind our team with backpack hoovers cleaning the shop floor ready for the 10am opening. This meant 117 deck boards, 109 joists, 109 inserts, 200 boxes of components, 50 bags of lightweight planting materials and 100’s of plants all had to follow this circuitous route!  All this had to be done without damaging any of the exquisite finishes, furniture and Longchamp merchandise on display.  Arbour Landscape Solutions provided the logistic support and all the materials used.

We installed the lightweight Millboard Duaspan subframe followed by the Millboard Coppered Oak Enhanced Grain decking.  This had to be carefully scribed around all the existing features. 

Challenges

In our feasibility we had to assess roof loads and work with the original architectural design team to consider what the roof could take.  Our brief was to offer a paved option as well as a decked solution for Longchamp to consider.  We needed to find an answer that was sympathetic to the building, would not be a liability to its functionality or be in danger of overloading the structure and be equally as luxurious and high quality as all the Longchamp merchandise within.  Everything had to be calculated and ultimately we actually reduced the roof load and stress on the building through delivering our specification.  For these reasons they chose lightweight Millboard decking.

The challenge didn’t stop with the hardscape, Charles had to look at lightweight planters and lightweight planting material to also achieve the reduced roof load and this had to take into account the additional weight once the planters were irrigated with the integrated irrigation system installed alongside. 

Throughout the installation the teams had to work efficiently and quietly and with impeccable site cleanliness and all the while be invisible to the Longchamp clients at all times.

It was a bit like a clandestine military operation as the team were dropped in in the morning with their tools and materials where they would operate on the roof until collected in the evening. They had to ensure they had everything they needed for that day. 

We were already well-versed in this practice following our Burberry Barge project.

Find out more here.

Collaborations and Partnerships

Charles Moore, Moore Outdoors | @moore.outdoors.uk

Richard Bickler, Arbour Landscape Solutions | @arbourlandsol