LifeCycleValue

Tourists will be flocking from all over the country and all over the world to stay in this magnificent hotel. Not only are they spending money on the rooms but they will be spending money in the restaurants and bars, helping Amano and Manex Properties produce a healthy profit. As a business venture, the hotel will more than make its money back but I don’t know when it will start turning a profit as all the loans and bills have to be paid. The architects have avoided complex designs and have stuck to simple, sleek and stylish yet have managed to create a design which is pleasant to look at and not too harsh. As I have not been allowed back inside the bedrooms since our visit on 10/11/21, it is hard to say whether the contractor has substituted any of the agreed materials for other, cheaper ones. I could not see any evidence of this during the visit.

Using the calculation I made in section 1.03 and 20.2, if the rooms are priced between £60-£100 even £150, 141 rooms at £100 a night is £14,000 taken by the hotel. In one year, that would mean £5,110,000. If that amount is a years room prices, then it will take Amano 16 years to begin making a profit and clear the £80,000,000 purchasing and construction costs. (This only takes into consideration the room prices and not money taken in the bars or restaurants.) All the staff have to be paid, the council tax, insurance, advertising and maintenance fees will continue to erase any profits for a considerable time after completion.

When it is time for the building to be taken out of use as a hotel, there are parts of the hotel will and should be salvaged. The first example is the steel framework erected for the roof top bar (see section 4.10). Steel can be re-used in a number of capacities e.g. for other frames, girders or sheets. In the bedroom, all of the appliances e.g. the toilet, can be taken out and used in another project. The furniture which we saw in the rooms waiting to be assembled, can be dis-assembled and sold off to companies or people who may need such pieces. Nothing should go to waste, especially if it has been bolted or screwed down rather than welded.

Who knows how long Drury House will stay as a hotel. It may not turn out profitable due other hotels popping up, like nearby at ‘Residence Inn London Tower Bridge’, ‘Cheval Gloucester Park’ and ‘Yotel London’. Will the Amano Hotel out-do its competitors and will it survive after the Covid pandemic. It seems the best and worst times for a hotel to be opening. Since March 2020, people have been told to stay at home, go out, stay in again, go out again but only if necessary and as currently in December 2021/January 2022, a new variant of Covid-19 has emerged, placing lock-down restrictions in the forefront of people’s minds. If people are told to ‘work from home’ then hotels which cater for business travellers as well as tourists will be on their knee. Some hotels haven’t and will not survive.

On the other hand of the dreadful despair of Covid-19, there is new life being brought to our towns and cities. The office as a place of work has been in slow decline thanks to the use of shared spaces for small businesses, working from home before the pandemic and the government saying due to Covid-19, you must all work from home where possible. Over 4.5% of commercial office space in the UK is unused. Could using that space for other purposes bring new life to areas? I think the Amano Group has hit the nail on the head by retrofitting an old office into a more beneficial place for locals and surrounding businesses.

4.13- Does the Project Go Far Enough in Terms of Sustainability?

I would say that sustainability goes far enough in terms of materials because of the retrofitting of the existing building. Using features such as the staircases and lift cores has saves a huge amount of time, money and concrete. How many tonnes of concrete would have to be poured to create a new stair and lift core. Saving concrete were we can helps to save the environment. The inclusion of zinc for the new roof means that once the building needs a refurbishment or is planned for demolition, then the roof can be removed and re-used or recycled to manufacture another piece.

One place in the building that are not sustainable is the additional floor which are poured concrete, not pre-cast. The construction industry should be at a point where pre-casting items should be the norm, leaving on site pouring for foundations and specialist sections. Standards today are increasing especially around what construction does to the environment, but the mainstream industry doesn’t seem to be picking this up. Large contractors aren’t really using techniques like this as are not convenient for them.

I think on the whole, the project is as sustainable as it could be. The architects have done what they can do with the building in trying to make it sustainable, but in being a hotel means that it is going to be one of the least sustainable buildings in Covent Garden.