Moor Place, London

Moor Place (formerly Moorgate Exchange) is an eleven storey development of large, column-free trading floors and offices in the heart of the City of London aimed at blue-chip international corporations.

The architectural solution maximises the trading areas while respecting ‘right to light’ from the neighbouring Barbican Estate and featuring roof terraces accessed directly from each of the six upper floors to add high-value amenity space for tenants.

The terraces step up the west-facing angled roof to catch the afternoon and evening sun. A light-weight planting solution is established in an almost impossibly minimal 110mm depth of substrate to maximise both floor area and planting and minimise structural loads.

The bespoke technical planting system (installed by ANS Global) was tested for a full year in rooftop field-trials to ensure the system was reliable and to select the most robust species which flower across the seasons. The building was the first in The City to achieve LEED Platinum international environmental accreditation and HED recorded several bee species visiting the flowering roof just days after the initial installation in March 2014.