CitizenM London

The hotel comprises 370 rooms spread across eight floors. Drawing on the local surroundings and the adjacent Trinity Square, the building’s façade has been clad in Portland Stone, while vertical dark grey-coloured glass-reinforced concrete (GRC) fins further break up the modules.

CitizenM’s trademark 14m2 rooms are stacked above each other and arranged around a central courtyard. These prefabricated pods are built in the hotel group’s own factory.

A material palette of Portland stone (Jordan’s Whitbed and Jordan’s Basebed), GRC, anodised aluminium, double glazing, and curtain walling is used for the hotel’s elevations. Horizontal and vertical hand-set Portland stone piers, supported on stainless-steel frameworks, establish the primary façade grid on the east, south and west elevations, and slender anodised aluminium extrusions provide horizontal division at each floor level while maintaining the vertical emphasis. An irregular distribution of dark grey GRC fins, formed in a U-profile with an anodised aluminium back plate, is accommodated between the stone and aluminium components, and is supported on stainless-steel bracketry. This provides a counterpoint to the warm hue of the Portland stone, and enhances the quality of the natural material while concurrently softening the regimental grid of the bedroom modules. GRC is also used horizontally within the recess created between the horizontal stone bands.

The cladding is connected directly to the bedroom modules via galvanised-steel fixing brackets, which are welded to the hot-rolled steel members within the module frames prior to delivery to site. These provide flanged connections to which the secondary stainless-steel frameworks are connected.

The aluminium framed windows are factory-fitted to the bedrooms and feature a backpainted and insulated panel where the bed meets the glass. Horizontal and vertical anodised aluminium cover plates are installed between the windows once the modules are installed.

A trademark CitizenM feature, a red glazed entrance box, marks the hotel’s entrance. A canopy wraps around three sides of the building, emphasising its multiple frontages, while artist Julian Opie was commissioned to create a bespoke piece of art covering the south and east façade.