Meta Office

King's Cross Central, London
2015 - 2021

11-21 Canal Reach is the largest and most significant office development to date for King’s Cross Central Limited Partnership. The contemporary building provides over 400,000 sq ft of modern office space with flexible floorplates. It is now the primary office location and largest of the 5 offices for Meta employees in the UK.

The development is divided into four large facets that follow the curve of the site. It is heavily influenced by the industrial heritage of the extensive railway development on its western boundary. The building’s distinctive façade features two layers: a cladding of bronzed anodised aluminium panels sits behind bronze anodised aluminium louvres that are perforated. Together, they reflect the building’s scale and emphasise the curved perspectives along Canal Reach in both distant and near views.

“Crowned by a rooftop park with exceptional skyline views, 11-21 Canal Reach delivers over 400,000 sq ft of office space with the flexibility required by Meta. Furthering our proud association with King’s Cross, this latest scheme has a strong presence in the townscape and again focusses on sustainability whereby we’ve driven down the levels of embodied carbon by 30% compared to standard industry practice. It is testament to an exceptional project team that we were able to deliver the biggest building to date on the masterplan despite the challenges of the pandemic.”

Julian Lipscombe
Director, Bennetts Associates

Sustainability has been integral to the project from start to completion. The building utilises passive design principles wherever possible and digital modelling was carried out on the façade to refine the shading requirements for each block in an iterative process.

In addition to an embodied carbon assessment, the building has been awarded a BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ rating, exceeding its original target. It is also connected to the King’s Cross District Energy Network meaning it will benefit from zero carbon heating, hot water and cooling. The King’s Cross District Energy Network is powered by 100% renewable energy sources. See Meta Office's Embodied Carbon Data published as a case study on LETI.