A Front Porch for Lloyd’s Building

Situated in London City, in one of the wealthiest parts of the world- the Lloyd’s Building currently acts as a fortress with a moat around it. As engaging as it is from afar, the way the building meets the ground of the street, leaves much to be desired. The intervention acknowledges that such a building has a responsibility towards its dense urban context. The proposal extends the room of the street by allowing the ground plane to come into the building and creating programs of a social nature that allow for urban activities to take place. By recessing part of the existing market floor, the subsequent Front Porch of the building creates a certain clarity to the act of arrival into the building. This further alters the relationship of the inside of the building to the outside by re-imagining the connection between the market floor, the ground floor and the lower ground floor.