by WilkinsonEyreStratford Market Depot

One of the first buildings to be completed on the Jubilee Line Extension, this was WilkinsonEyre’s first major new-build project. Won as the result of a design competition, the brief called for a complex providing train maintenance and stabling facilities alongside extensive office and ancillary buildings.

A ‘supershed’ was the ideal solution for the main train shed – an industrial building of considered design, providing flexible, durable space. Here, a 100m wide, 190m long arched roof covers eleven maintenance bays.

The economical long-span structure provides good daylight and eight metres of clear headroom above the tracks. The parallelogram shape of the building suggested the use of a diagrid rather than a conventional orthogonal grid, and this generated the concept for a space-frame roof. This is supported by tree-like columns which spread the load onto the v-shaped supports at the perimeter, and is cut with diagonal slit windows allowing sunlight to flood the space below.

DetailsLocation: London, UK Client: London Underground Limited Architect: WilkinsonEyre Structural Engineer: Hyder Consulting LimitedValue: £25mDate: Completed April 1996

AwardsCivic Trust Award 1998 Financial Times Architecture at Work Award 1997 RIBA Commercial Architecture Award 1997 RIBA Award 1997 Shortlisted for the Stirling Prize 1997 Structural Steelwork Design Award 1997 British Construction Industry Building Award 1997