17 Kings Hill Avenue
Subscribe now to instantly view this image
Subscribe to the Architects’ Journal (AJ) for instant access to the AJ Buildings Library, an online database of nearly 2,000 exemplar buildings in photographs, plans, elevations and details.
Already a subscriber? Sign in
Exterior of ofice building
Tim Soar (website) Download Original
A two-storey office building with self-supporting brick walls, situated in a business park in Kent
Seen from the roadway, 17 Kings Hill Avenue has a clear and distinctive form and a visible front entrance. The design responds to the developer's request for a building that reflects the local vernacular - evident, at this scale, in barns and oast houses with their massive roofs and brick and weather boarded walls.
Four tenancies are possible on each floor and each wing is 15m wide, with natural cross ventilation through top-hung windows with high level vents for use in winter.
The main structure is an in-situ reinforced concrete frame supported on mass concrete pad foundations. The structure has a timber truss roof and Sussex Findon Yellow stock bricks have been chosen for the facade. The roof is natural slate (from Canada), the timber boarding is western red cedar and the windows are powder-coated high-performance aluminium units.
Data
- Begun: Sep 1999
- Completed: Aug 2000
- Floor area: 3,685m2
- Sector: Office
- Total cost: £2.8M
- Tender date: Sep 1999
- Procurement: Two-stage JCT 98
- Address: 17 Kings Hill Avenue, West Malling, Kent, ME19 4RL, United Kingdom
Professional Team 
- Architect: Richard Partington Architects
- Project architects: Colin Davis, Ewa Maciejewska, Madeleine Adams, Nick Bethune, Richard Partington
- Client: Rouse Kent
- Quantity surveyor: Davis Langdon and Everest
- Structural engineer: Price & Myers
- Services engineer: Rybka Battle
- Main contractor: Wates Construction
Suppliers
- Timber trusses: Kent Timber
- Structural steel: Allslade
