Elephant and Castle is one of the busiest stations on the Underground network.
Our brief was to ease congestion in the ticket hall, increase the number of ticket gates and improve passenger flow in and out of new faster lifts. Central to the design is the curved ticket hall that follows the line of the road. The bespoke cladding was used to bring together the new elements with the existing lift tower. Our concept was to develop a simple grid curtain walling system and infill this with a material that would develop a lively characteristic, changing in depth and hue depending on orientation and time of day. We designed a purpose-made double glazing specification with an acid etched toughened outer pane, an enlarged air gap and a polished mirror inner pane (with the mirror facing out). This ‘ice cube’ effect was repeated on all of the panels including the curved ones around the ticket hall. Exposed steelwork all came from the same architectural language whether structural, architectural or part of the cladding system. These simple strategies have resulted in a building which merges new and existing elements into a coherent whole
