News

It was celebrations all round when Bond Bryan attended the official launch party of the recently-completed Volkswagen, West London dealership.

Bond Bryan worked closely with both Volkswagen UK Limited and the dealership operator, Inchcape plc, throughout the project duration from inception to completion.

The 4-storey building design, which is based on the Volkswagen VRC 2010 global concept, is 15,468sqm in area on a 0.68 hectare site, and is the largest Volkswagen dealership in the UK. The spacious 3-floor showrooms are capable of displaying 92 new and used cars, which allows space for every current model in the expanding Volkswagen range.

From the outset, the building was designed to incorporate the latest technology to provide the best possible customer experience whether purchasing or servicing their cars. Volkswagen commented:‘West London Volkswagen has been built with the customer firmly in mind. It boasts a number of 140-inch video walls, which allow sales staff to project images directly onto the big screens. The aim is to more fully immerse the customer in the experience and bring the cars to life in a truly innovative way.’

The building, which sits about 3m below the A4 Great West Road level, was constructed using a precast reinforced concrete frame. The showroom block is clad in a combination of double-glazed solar control structural curtain walling, aluminium rainscreen cladding and colour coated steel profiled cladding.

The car park block, which is naturally ventilated, is clad with purpose designed perforated louvres which allow daylight penetration and exhaust dispersal.
A feature of the south-west façade is a 230sqm living wall – this contains 22,080 plants and is automatically irrigated using rainwater harvesting. On the north-east and south-east facades, sculpted perforated and embossed aluminium rainscreen panel claddings are used as visual features, and reflect the sinuous planting design used in the living wall.

The showroom principal facades, all entrances and handover bays, are clad with white aluminium cladding and portiques to reflect the VW corporate design.
Building materials used are recyclable and contributed to a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating.

The landscaping incorporates SUDs with the use of permeable types of block and tarmac pavings.

The building is air conditioned throughout using gas fired heating. External and internal showroom lighting types are LEDs. A 300sqm array of photovoltaic panels is located over the car park block at roof level. Solar collectors are installed above the roof top plant room.