100 Bishopsgate

Fascinating: 30 metres long, 8 metres high - part of the Laas (Lasa) White Water marble quarry in London in the lobby of the new 100 Bishopsgate Tower

When visitors enter the large reception and lobby area of the 40-storey main building of the "100 Bishopsgate" building construction project, newly constructed between 2016 and 2019 on the eastern edge of the financial district of the City of London, they encounter the entrance lobby with 8m high and 30m long walls of refined Lasa marble. The installed wall cladding with Lasa marble of the protected variety group, LASA VENATO^® is the result of an interesting and unusual process. The architects and designers of Allies and Morrison were fascinated by a local glimpse of the Lasa White Water Quarry (Weißwasserbruch/Cava Acqua Bianca) and asked Euromarble to design the reception area as if it had been cut out of a single block of Lasa marble. Visitors thus enter the building and find themselves in front of a huge, true-to-original marble wall of the White Water Quarry, which was built and cut by Euromarble and installed by Szerelmey.

With meticulous in-house project and planning work, Lasa marble was able to fully satisfy the challenges desired by the London architecture and urban planning office. Together with the partner Szerelmey, this project consisting of 1,300 m² of Lasa marble was realised between 2017 and 2019. In Euromarble's innovative "digital dry lay" process, raw marble slabs were first scanned individually with a high-performance scanner and then virtually "cut" by Euromarble's developers to give life to the lobby wall in the 100 Bishopsgate Tower. The big challenge in this project was to develop the design desired by the customer, created in a virtual reality way, which had to be cut exactly as presented. This process enlivened the continuity of the veining in a way as if you were inside the Lasa quarry. In order to demonstrate to the customer, the efficiency of the "Virtual Dry Lay" developed by Euromarble and thus to compare what was developed using virtual reality with the parts subsequently cut with CNC machines, the classic "Dry Lay" installation technique was used. Given the size of the walls, a drone was used for the first time during the installation procedure to fly along the dry-laid marble slabs, with each piece being subjected to careful inspection. Lasa Marmo would like to thank Euromarble for having succeeded, thanks to its developers, in recreating part of the Lasa quarry in London and bringing something unique to life that has longevity built in. The selected large-format wall panels for the "100 Bishopsgate" project were cut to a thickness of 3 cm and provided with various surfaces. The largest part was sand-waterjet treated and brushed afterwards, which creates a haptic and optical eggshell characteristic. In order not to disturb the continuous vein and the optics of the large wall, even the doors were covered with marble plates in the so-called "Honeycomb procedure". This weight-saving feature is achieved by sticking thin marble plates on a honeycomb plate. The result in the large reception and lobby area of the main tower at 100 Bishopsgate is impressive.

The building:

100 Bishopsgate is a recently completed development in London's financial district, which is mainly an office building but also houses restaurants, bars and retail outlets. The project is divided into two buildings. A 37-storey high-rise with a floor area of 4,100 m² each on 5 floors as well as 32 further office floors with areas of between 1,800 to 2,300 m². The second building comprises 7 floors behind a preserved historical façade and will accommodate restaurant and office floors of 740 m² each.

Main contractor of the project: Multiplex

Project managed by the owner Brookfield Properties.