1. The project: Selfridges London

Selfridges is a huge and luxurious department store right in the middle of Oxford Street, home to lots of elegant shops and world-class restaurants. The department store was founded in 1908 and the new entrance has been open since 2018, between two old buildings situated on Duke Street. Byldis is proud to have produced this new entrance: polished black concrete elements have been used as cladding for the steel construction. We also made the white marble sandblasted floor plates. A beautiful reference project in the heart of the city.

2. Byldis contribution to this project

Byldis produced the new Selfridges entrance: polished black concrete elements are used as cladding for the steel construction. We also made the white marble sandblasted floor slabs. All columns, lintels and covers were produced in “deep” polished black concrete with yellow gold/brown and very rough black aggregates.

3. Why was Byldis chosen?

The commissioning body approached Byldis for the Selfridges project, as Byldis had presented the best solution to achieve the desired result for the entrance to the building. They wanted a 'specific look' which meant that the elements had to have the appearance of natural stone. We considered the possibilities of the design and looked for technical solutions.

In short, a challenging project that we were able to bring to a successful conclusion by delivering this beautiful entrance to Selfridges. A seemingly simple design, bold looking elements with extremely neat joints. Not only a credit to Byldis but also to all involved parties and certainly worth a visit, whereby I recommend taking a good look at the interplay of lines on the arched concrete floor."
- Pierre van Boxtel, Commercial Technical Advisor Byldis 

4. Challenges & solutions

Special prefab elements
One of the challenges of the project was that the two columns, measuring one by seven metres high, had to look as if they were solid. The precast concrete columns also had to resemble columns made of ‘look-alike’ natural stone. So, the stone in the elements must not sink or move at all. We had to use special production techniques in order to deal with the unique composition of the concrete mixture and the demand that the sides were to have the same grain structure and appearance. The elements therefore appear to be solid, and from whichever side they are viewed, they have the same shine, the same appearance, without having to separate out the heavy aggregates you would normally get during production.

Tight construction site
The Selfridges construction site was a mere 800 mm larger than the building itself, which made things very tricky indeed as there was so little space available. Furthermore, Duke Street is a very busy street, which meant that the logistics had an enormous impact on the execution of the project. The store remained open as usual during construction. Selfridges had strict rules in place, which meant that we had to be creative in executing our working activities (sometimes outside opening hours 9:00-22:00).

Narrow joints
The architect considers narrow joints to be essential and had created a design in which it was of the utmost importance to keep tight control of the size of the joints between the elements. The demand was to have narrow joints (20 mm) everywhere. We devised a construction for this whereby the steel was installed behind the beam in the column. A construction to which, behind which and against which the elements are mounted. As a result of the forces exerted, the steel construction wants to deform, whereby the concrete construction also wants to deform with it, and the joints move in relation to each other; something the architect wanted to avoid at all costs. We devised a solution for this that ensures that the steel can move independently of the concrete construction.

5. Facts & figures

6. Footage

7. More information about Selfridges

In the news

• “Selfridges-oxford-street”.15-05-2018. Source: Byldis
• “The Lines of Selfridges”.18-02-2019. Source: Byldis

More information

• https://www.selfridges.com/GB/en/features/info/stores/london/