Design Approach
Designed to capture the views of its riverside context, this residential-led development, located close to Greenwich town centre, provides 41 high-quality apartments within a pair of buildings that respond creatively to their surroundings.
The building offers a mixture of private and affordable apartments, all provided to London Housing Design Guide and Lifetime Homes standards whilst also achieving the equivalent of Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4. The new homes are complemented by a BREEAM Excellent rated community space and flexible commercial units, bringing life and animation to the riverside and the broader surrounding context.
The new buildings replace an existing low-rise and inefficient block of apartments, which lacked quality and failed to fulfil the clear potential of a prominent riverfront site which consequently lacked character and activity. Given the sensitivity of the wider site context around Greenwich, being both within the West Greenwich Conservation Area as well as viewing corridor for Protected Vista 5.2A forming part of the Thames Waterfront, a carefully considered design and massing approach was required.
The successful outcome brings this portion of the riverfront to life while respectfully drawing on the site history and context. The two distinct blocks are unified by an approach to materiality which wraps metal panels around the base of the building at ground and first floors, accentuated by strong vertical elements that echoes the timber piles which traditionally support the river wall. Above ground level, historical metalwork trades inform the zinc-clad riverside block, while brick façades to the south block respond to existing buildings within the local Conservation Area.
