海角视频

In the second of a series of conversations ahead of the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) conference themed 鈥楴ew or Renew?鈥� and London Real Estate Forum (LREF) event themed 鈥楻eimagine鈥�, Ana Araujo, Partner, and 海角视频鈥檚 UK Retrofit Lead, sits down with Emily McDonald, Partner, and Project Director of Phase One of the Battersea redevelopment project.

Today they talk about 海角视频鈥檚 role in the successful delivery of Phase One, which subsequently unlocked funding for the wider Battersea redevelopment project.

AA: The Battersea Power Station regeneration has seen the creation of London鈥檚 most eagerly anticipated mixed-use development for a generation, serviced by a Zone 1 extension to the Northern Line and the restoration of the Grade II* listed former power station. Why is Phase One so important to the Battersea story and what was included in Phase One of the project?

EM: Phase One is incredibly important to the Battersea story because it was the first building to come to fruition after decades of different plans for the site not quite coming into being. As such it was instrumental in the unlocking of the funding or perhaps more importantly the confidence and belief in the site for phases two onwards. If Phase One had not been successful, the redeveloped Battersea we see today would not exist. Or if it did, it would look very, very different.

Phase One was new build and consisted of two main residential blocks over a common basement. We worked closely with both architects 鈥� SimpsonHaugh and Partners and De Rijke Marsh Morgan (dRMM) 鈥� and led the design for the basement space. The basement is over two levels with underground parking for residents, rentable storage, and other facilities.

Above ground, we were structural engineers for the residential blocks 鈥� they are 300m in length by just over 20m wide. It was slightly tricky as the massing 鈥� the structure in three dimensions – changes along the length, varying between eight storeys and 18 storeys. Phase One is now what we see as Circus West and Faraday House.

Circus West is a 17-storey, 327-metre-long building that narrows at one end on the Battersea site. With SimpsonHaugh and Partners, we created 753 new homes in a mix of apartment sizes, townhouses and penthouses, the design included residents鈥� garden and lounge facilities, a health suite, offices, shops, bars, restaurants, and a new riverside park. Faraday House is a smaller residential block made up of uniform nine storeys. The really nice thing about the design of Circus West is that residents can enjoy both sides of the building – direct sunlight on the west side of the building and the calm of the landscaped courtyard on the east side. The apartments are arranged in small clusters of three per floor, a nice feature that allows residents to meet for 鈥榥eighbourliness鈥�. The architectural design very much included the health of residents, by placing the staircase in the core with large windows to encourage residents to use the stairs. The apartments also have private balconies or 鈥渨intergardens鈥� – and rooftop terraces provide outdoor space for each apartment – as well as fabulous views across London.

Along with bridge engineering and civil structures, facade engineering, fire engineering, inclusive design, and water engineering, we also carried out the structural design for the refurbishment of the Network Rail arches on the west side of the Battersea development. For the arches to be used for commercial space they required new below ground drainage, utility connections, facades, the essential underpinning of the rear walls and in some cases an internal steel frame structure to provide a mezzanine floor, all of which were designed by our engineers.

AA: Some great structural engineering elements, what other expertise did 海角视频 offer to Phase One of the project?

EM: We were the integrating consultancy for the basement and a key consultant for the above ground design, and so we played a central role in several areas that proved critical to the success of this phase, and indeed the success of the wider redevelopment of the Battersea site.

We provided design leadership on the Phase One basement car park, ensuring space planning, future proofing and of course to ensure high-quality design was consistently maintained throughout the development. There were unique co-ordination challenges as the basement had to link up with a series of other basements in the other phases of development, as well as the two above-ground buildings. 海角视频 was influential in the design of the car parking itself, working with specialist consultants to ensure that the most effective layout was adopted including additional lettable storage as added value for the project.

We also led the design of the external podium areas and designed a large temporary energy centre within the basement to service the wider project. Our detailed multidisciplinary planning approach ensured floor to floor heights were maximised while staying within the planning envelope and we designed a 鈥渒it of parts鈥� construction scheme to help achieve the challenging programme on a constrained site between the river Thames, the power station, and a mainline railway. We worked closely with the subcontractors to deliver a variety of innovative precast construction techniques. These included slipform cores, jump-form cores, precast cores, twin wall, post tension superstructure slab, precast balconies, precast biscuit slabs, precast stairs – and precast columns.

Working collaboratively with several key project stakeholders such as Network Rail, Thames Water and the Environment Agency was a critical success factor in the timely delivery of Phase 1 and provided several win-win outcomes such as activation of the railway arches and the opening of the Thames Pathway.

Circus West is widely recognised by its large, glazed fa莽ade with transparent glass that could only be achieved through our fa莽ade expertise and coordination in the selection of materials and details. The placement of the winter gardens helped to balance significant glazed areas with natural ventilation.

AA: When Phase One opened, this was the first real evidence for the public of the level of quality and local regeneration that was to come. How would you summarise our work on Phase One of the BPS project?

EM: Phase One enabled the rest of the Battersea regeneration programme to continue with conviction 鈥� I鈥檇 say that the wider promise of the site was assured by it; demonstrating the potential of LDA鈥檚 place making vision. The first residents began moving in early 2017, and in 2019, The Turbine Theatre and Archlight Cinema opened in Arches Lane, as did the Coaling Jetty which receives the Thames Clippers. I looked on Tripadvisor yesterday, just to see what visitors to Battersea were saying about it. The railway arches get several mentions in reviews, as do the restaurants beneath them, and the events hosted by the theatre and cinema get rave reviews. Phase One has significantly contributed to the successful placemaking of Battersea, helping create a new urban quarter on the southern bank of the Thames.

For me, this really sums up Phase One 鈥� the creation of not just the first of the new communities at Battersea, but a place people want to seek out and relax in, easy access to both great amenities and transport to ensure they continue to flourish. And I鈥檓 proud of the close-knit collaboration of whole project teams, a lot of people worked very hard for a long time to bring the Battersea story to life and achieve the client vision.  It wasn鈥檛 always an easy journey, but it was privilege to work with an incredibly talented and committed project team, we had a lot of fun along the way, and we still stay in touch 鈥� it was a pivotal project and experience in many of our careers.

The CTBUH 2024 (23鈥�27 September) 鈥楴ew or Renew鈥� conference seeks to identify strategies for transformation and growth that bring new blood to urban life; 鈥榓 new generation of tall buildings and shapes of density to be discovered, which provides new opportunities for flexibility and energy savings, as well as a substantial reduction of impact on the environment鈥�. 海角视频 are also a 鈥楶artner鈥� at this year鈥檚 London Real estate Forum (LREF).

To discuss the challenges of your transformation and growth project and/or to talk to the 海角视频 team, click here.

海角视频 participation at CTBUH  

Emily McDonald will participate in the Renewing a Brutalist Icon: Barbican panel discussion on Wednesday, 25 September, alongside Philippa Simpson, Barbican Centre, Oliver Heywood, Allies & Morrison and Asif Khan, Asif Khan Studio. Chaired by Catherine Croft, Twentieth Century Society the panel discussion starts at 9am.

About the panel discussion

The Barbican Centre (1965-1982) was part of a visionary plan to radically transform how we experience buildings and cities. Many of its systems and infrastructure are now showing their age. A substantial renewal is now underway, providing an opportunity to restore lost architectural features and bring the complex into compliance with municipal climate targets. Link to CTBUH .