155 Drummond Street
A technically demanding residential refurbishment that turned the building’s own original brick into something entirely new — bespoke Jesmonite panels that honour the history of the material while transforming the façade.
The Brief
At 135 Fleet Street, Simplicity were appointed to deliver a GRC architectural package across three distinct areas of the building: a roof-level pavilion, the public entrance walkway, and an emergency staircase. Each element required a different technical approach, but all had to read as part of a cohesive, high-quality scheme.
The Challenge
The centrepiece of the project was the roof-level pavilion — a function area defined by massive prismatic GRC ceiling panels. The geometry was inherently complex, requiring the precise resolution of intersecting angles and shifting planes to achieve the intended bold visual impact.
The entrance walkway coffers presented a different challenge altogether. Each coffer required an inner and an outer cast, bonded together to create a thin panel with a clean, finished surface visible from both sides — seamless and monolithic in appearance when viewed from the floor. There was no tolerance for misalignment or visible join.
The emergency staircase, a functional element on the roof level, also needed to hold its own within the context of a premium function space. Both inner and outer stair walls required cladding with bespoke GRC panels that would deliver the same quality of finish as the architectural elements around them.
Our Approach
For the pavilion, we engineered the prismatic GRC panels to resolve the complex intersecting geometry, ensuring each junction was precisely detailed and that the shifting planes read clearly and confidently at scale.
The entrance coffers were manufactured as a bonded two-part system — an inner and outer cast carefully aligned and bonded to present a single, seamless panel. This allowed the coffers to be finished on both faces without revealing any structural make-up when viewed from below.
Throughout all three elements, absolute clarity of form was the constant standard. Every line, junction, and edge was carefully resolved to ensure a clean, contemporary finish.
The Result
The completed scheme at 135 Fleet Street is a confident demonstration of what GRC can achieve when precision manufacturing meets complex architectural ambition. Three technically demanding elements, each solved differently, come together as a unified, high-quality interior that underscores our ability to execute challenging, non-standard cladding solutions with clean finishing and a strong architectural presence.
