In the heart of London’s financial district of steel and glass there is an occasional gem. Just behind the “Walkie Talkie” and not as far as the Gherkin sits the now-gleaming white Asia House.

The iron framed building, clad with white glazed terracotta (or faience) badly needed repairs to its rusting skeleton.  Working from the sky down, we replaced course after course with white Portland precast units, which were then painted in various subtle shades of Keim paint to match the original.

The scope of work included flat ashlar panels alongside moulded window heads, jambs, and mullions. We also replaced string courses featuring a “bead and reel” design, as well as the first floor cornice, corbels, and interlocking voussoir head units. On the ground floor, we produced a full scale column model and silicone mould to manufacture a number of replacements in Glass Reinforced Concrete (GRC).

Today, when you look at Asia House, the GRC and the precast stone are entirely indistinguishable from the original faience.