THE MATRIX BY MCBAINS COOPER

The Matrix building at 9 Aldgate - the brainchild of architects at McBains Cooper - has received redevelopment planning permission from The City of London Corporation.

The complex drop-down and rebuild, with three additional storeys yet a slimmer body, will see the realisation of an architecturally sensitive and technically complex new twelve storey hotel building. Formely a commercial property, the new building will become a 4 star hotel.

The new 275-room, 12-storey hotel building will be constructed on the site of the old commercial property, known as The Matrix building, which flanks Aldgate tube station and the 18th Century St Botolph-without-Aldgate Church with its obelisk spire.

Taking the structure a further three storeys high, to accommodate the desired number of rooms and reducing the ground footprint – to create more space around the new hotel – had considerable implications for the architecture of the new hotel.

The new hotel has been designed to sit elegantly within its urban environment. The façade is composed using two storey bands of windows to reduce the apparent scale of the building. With an outer façade wrapped around an inner glass box façade, McBains Cooper has created deep reveals to the western elevation that creates shadows and visual interest.