At HDR, we recognise that successfully shaping the city skylines of the 21st century requires a multifaceted approach, leading on ambitious sustainability credentials, creating iconic landmarks, and navigating the intricacies of delivering innovative smart buildings within dense urban environments. This awareness helps our London clients create new destinations and introduce vitality to spaces where people, communities and businesses can truly flourish.

A strong example is 21 Moorfields, Deutsche Bank’s new U.K. headquarters in the City of London. Developed by Landsec, the 17-storey building provides approximately 550,000 square feet of workplace, amenity, restaurant, retail and public space, including a landscaped courtyard and direct access to Moorgate Station.

The HDR team worked closely with the client, developer, contractor and wider project partners to align commissioning activity, support the handover process and progress this impressive scheme towards practical completion.

Our team provided comprehensive commissioning services for the project, covering commissioning validation for the shell and core on behalf of Landsec and Deutsche Bank, as well as commissioning management for the fit-out on behalf of principal contractor ISG. Our early engagement and unique dual role across both the base build and fit-out stages helped to instil confidence in the project team that the engineering systems were thoroughly tested and ready for operation.

The project required meticulous coordination due to the scale, location and complexity of the building. 21 Moorfields sits above a live transport hub, effectively acting as a ‘bridge’ constructed over the station. Consequently, all the mechanical, electrical and public health (MEP) services have been designed with expansion and movement in mind.

Zac Clark, Commissioning Associate Director at HDR, comments: 

“Among the innovations we delivered were the flexible busbars, which are the primary power distribution throughout the building. We carried out bespoke factory testing to minimise impact on the construction program and believe that this was one of the first applications of this pioneering method.”

In another custom solution for the client, HDR adopted a strategic approach to commissioning powerful telecommunication rooms, akin to a small data centre delivery process. Additionally, mission-critical areas of 21 Moorfields were set up with backup MEP services for uninterrupted operational capacity in case of emergency.

Reflecting Deutsche Bank's vision, 21 Moorfields incorporates a vast array of leading-edge smart features. HDR worked with the trade contractor and the client to develop a commissioning strategy enabling the use of smart actuators. For evolvability, all building systems are connected to a cloud-based building operating system and are digitally monitored and controlled via dedicated dashboards. These include lighting, energy and water metering, security, heating and cooling, ventilation systems (including terminal room units), fire and leak detection, vertical transportation, occupancy sensors, as well as environmental and air quality sensors.

HDR also used Nucleus, our proprietary commissioning platform, to track planned tests, record governance and support live reporting throughout the process. This gave the project team clear visibility of commissioning progress and helped maintain a consistent record of activity across both the shell and core and fit-out elements.

Post-occupancy, HDR is providing additional aftercare for the development in the form of seasonal commissioning, focused on optimising the building’s ongoing in-use performance and verifying its performance aligns with the design intent.

The synergistic services undertaken by HDR, comprising commissioning validation, commissioning management and aftercare, have contributed to the building being well on track to meet its targeted prestigious sustainability and well-being industry certifications, namely BREEAM Excellent, LEED v3 Gold and WELL.

The team’s collaborative approach has assisted with the delivery of a significant new workplace within the City of London. 21 Moorfields takes its place as an exemplar, landmark new high-quality, resilient office environment that will bring people and businesses together for decades to come.