LONDON | Projects & Construction

[Minsk]

Bourbon Lane / Cartwright Pickard Architects

Architects: Cartwright Pickard Architects
Location: London, England
Completion: 2007
Area: 6,861 sqm
Client: Octavia Housing
Photographs: Courtesy of Cartwright Pickard Architects

This project was won in an international design competition to develop best practice in affordable housing. It has gathered many accolades and awards from the Riba, Civic Trust and Housing Design awards amongst others, and has achieved Gold Building For Life Standard. The scheme occupies a site between a massive retail development and mixed fabric of Victorian, Edwardian and later terraced housing.

The retail development is bounded by a seven storey ‘citadel’ wall forming the northern boundary to the site from which run a series of timber clad blocks, up to four storeys in height, providing a succession of mews spaces alternating with private gardens. The development encompasses 27 houses and 51 flats and maisonettes for rent or shared ownership. A pedestrian friendly access road, over-sailed by dramatic cantilevers, separates the housing from a landscaped parking strip.

The scheme creates a strong sense of place. Dwellings are organised around strongly defined semi-public open courtyard spaces in a contemporary interpretation of the “London Mews”. The new buildings are of simple geometric forms and at second and third floor levels the blocks are cut into to provide private roof gardens for upper level dwellings.

http://www.archdaily.com/243155/bour...rd-architects/

[LondonFox]

Cool!

[italiano_pellicano]

very nice

[Langur]

A couple of very positive stories in City AM today...


Nine Elms residential towers granted planning consent
http://www.cityam.com/latest-news/ni...anning-consent

Tuesday 19th June 2012, 1:37am

A scheme to add a pair of high-rise residential towers to London’s South Bank was granted planning consent last night by Wandsworth council. The “One Nine Elms” project, proposed by Green Property and CIT Group, will see the existing 1970s Market Towers replaced with 58 and 43 storey skyscrapers, with 500 homes, offices and shops. The highest tower will reach 200m, making it one of London’s tallest.

[IMG]http://i40.************/xkoxa1.jpg[/IMG]


Quintain partners with Hong Kong firm
http://www.cityam.com/latest-news/qu...hong-kong-firm

Tuesday 19th June 2012, 1:09am
KASMIRA JEFFORD

QUINTAIN ESTATES revealed yesterday it has struck up a joint venture with Hong Kong billionaire Henry Cheng Kar-Shun, in a deal that will help kick-start one of the UK’s biggest housing projects.

The regeneration specialist said Cheng’s investment vehicle Knight Dragon has taken a 60 per cent stake in its Greenwich peninsular project, sending shares soaring 15 per cent yesterday.

Knight Dragon will buy Australia’s Lend Lease out of its 50 per cent stake while also buying 10 per cent of Quintain’s joint share in the 96 acre riverside scheme.

In exchange, Quintain will receive a £300m credit facility, helping the firm to bring forward the ambitious project to build 10,000 homes as well as shops, schools and hotels.

The deal will also return over £150m to Quintain’s balance sheet over the next six years.

[Dale]

OMG!

[aarhusforever]

I love those towers....and the location

[Terenozavr]

interesting projects!

[LondonFox]

Originally Posted by Langur

Quintain partners with Hong Kong firm
http://www.cityam.com/latest-news/qu...hong-kong-firm

Tuesday 19th June 2012, 1:09am
KASMIRA JEFFORD

QUINTAIN ESTATES revealed yesterday it has struck up a joint venture with Hong Kong billionaire Henry Cheng Kar-Shun, in a deal that will help kick-start one of the UK’s biggest housing projects.

The regeneration specialist said Cheng’s investment vehicle Knight Dragon has taken a 60 per cent stake in its Greenwich peninsular project, sending shares soaring 15 per cent yesterday.

Knight Dragon will buy Australia’s Lend Lease out of its 50 per cent stake while also buying 10 per cent of Quintain’s joint share in the 96 acre riverside scheme.

In exchange, Quintain will receive a £300m credit facility, helping the firm to bring forward the ambitious project to build 10,000 homes as well as shops, schools and hotels.

The deal will also return over £150m to Quintain’s balance sheet over the next six years.

So Greenwich Peninsula will be covered in high rises too now.. add to that Wood Wharf on the other side next to canary Wharf and that entire bend in the river Thames will look like a metropolis in the next 15 years...

[Minsk]

Olympic Shooting Venue / Magma Architecture

Architects: Magma Architecture
Location: London, England
Lead Consultant: Mott MacDonald
Client: Olympic Delivery Authority
Total Footprint: 14,305 sqm
Total SeatingCapacity: 2,900
Architectural Design Team: Martin Ostermann with Lena Kleinheinz, Hendrik Bohle, Susanne Welcker, Pablo Carballal, Niko Mahler, Philipp Mecke, Diana Drogan, Veljko Markovicz, Manuel Welsky
Photographs: J.L. Diehl, Magma Architecture

http://www.archdaily.com/244370/olym...-architecture/

[LondonFox]

Looks amazing!

[LondonFox]

A London tower block that has twice been granted planning permission but continued to face legal challenges has been cleared for construction by the Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal ruled on Friday that Southwark Council was right to grant planning permission for a 31-storey 500-bed student accommodation scheme next to the Shard at London Bridge.

The block, dubbed the Quill because of its profile, is being developed by Investream and has been designed by Spparc Architecture.

Adjoining landowner Threadneedle took out a judicial review against Southwark Council and communities secretary Eric Pickles, who decided against calling in the planning decision for review. The High Court ealier ruled that the conduct of both the council and the secretary of state had been 'unimpeachable'. The Court of Appeal has now upheld this decision.

One of the main objections to the scheme has been its 109m height. But as this is only a third of the height of the neighbouring Shard (310m), this criticism has been dismissed by the courts, the council and the secretary of state.

Rory Joyce, partner at Drivers Jonas Deloitte and planning consultant for the development said: "After three years of working with the Council and other parties to gain planning permission for this scheme, we are delighted with the Court of Appeal's decision. At a time when we all recognise the pressing need for investment and regeneration, it is more important than ever that developers are able to get on with delivering high quality schemes like The Quill."

http://www.cnplus.co.uk/news/judges-...632139.article

http://www.theconstructionindex.co.u...rown-out-again

[aarhusforever]

...now lets start construction

[Ulpia-Serdica]

[LondonFox]

£15m prefab hotel to be assembled in London




Planning permission has been granted for a new £15m Park Plaza Hotel on London’s Western Avenue which will be built mainly offsite.

ESA – part of Capita Symonds – is designing the 160 room hotel, which will occupy a site opposite Park Royal tube station, on behalf of the PPHE Hotel Group.

The four star accommodation over six storeys will include a bar, restaurant, gym and conference facilities.

It will be constructed using a fast build system that will see most aspects of the hotel – from the key hotel facilities on the ground floor to the completed rooms above – designed and built off site before being stacked together to form the building.

Marek Sroka, ESA, said, “The design philosophy is to deliver a high quality four star scheme for a highly competitive price.

“Park Plaza Hotels and ESA architects have invested five years of design development and research into producing a modular hotel proposal that will achieve an exceptionally high level of quality design for a reasonable cost.

“We have worked closely with a modular construction company that has allowed us to develop a design that combines modular building and construction insight along with the necessary logistical and industrial production principles and facilities that are key to delivering a successful project of this type.

“The flexible modular building system and unique facade design that the team has developed has allowed us a good degree of freedom and flexibility as it is the construction process that we have standardised, not the design.”

ESA is currently in discussions with contractors and work on the hotel will start on site later this year.

http://www.constructionenquirer.com/...led-in-london/

[LondonFox]

Bulk Rail Freight Transport for Europe's Biggest Construction Project



New Track Officially Opens to Support Crossrail

UK – So what’s the best way to tackle the huge bulk transport job involved when you are clearing the spoil from the tunnels of Europe’s biggest construction project? As the scheme involved is Crossrail, the ambitious plan to put new rail tunnels running under the heart of London between Paddington and Whitechapel the answer is of course – rail freight.

Last December the contract to remove excavated material to a new RSPB nature reserve at Wallasea Island in Essex was awarded and this week Thames Gateway Minister, Bob Neill officially opened a new £13.5 million freight link from the North Kent Line to the former Lafarge Cement Works at Northfleet. Exactly one year after his first visit to the then empty Brownfield site, the Minister noted the significant progress that has been made to construct a new connection to the North Kent Line, reinstate the railway, and receive the first trainloads of Crossrail excavated material from London.

At the peak of tunnelling up to five freight trains a day will be operated by GB Railfreight from Westbourne Park in west London carrying a total of 7,000 tonnes of earth. Prior to the official opening by the minister over 10,000 tonnes of excavated material had already been transported from London to Kent. At Northfleet the excavated material will be transported by water for the last part of its journey along the Thames to its final destination. David Simms, Land and Planning Director for Lafarge Cement said:

"Crossrail's involvement in Northfleet has been a major catalyst in enabling the construction of this new freight line which will play a leading role in transporting excavated material from the new tunnels. The new rail link forms the second stage of Lafarge’s regeneration of the 104-acre site where a new residential and business community will be created, enhancing Northfleet’s connections to the River Thames.

“In the medium term we hope to use the rail link to serve our existing cement terminal. When Crossrail tunnelling completes, we intend to construct a new Aggregates Terminal which could export up to 1.2m tonnes by rail per year when it is fully operational. It is hoped that this sustainable form of freight transport could facilitate further jobs and development in North West Kent.”

Chris Dulake, Crossrail’s Chief Engineer, added:

“More than 1 million tonnes of earth will be excavated during the construction of Crossrail's western tunnels between Royal Oak Portal and Farringdon. Transporting excavated material by train will remove at least 50,000 lorry journeys from central London as well as ensuring its use for environmental improvement including a major new RSPB nature reserve in Essex.”

The size of the logistics project involved in the Crossrail project is impressive by any standards. Assembly of ‘Elizabeth’, the next 1,000 tonne tunnel boring machine (TBM) is currently under way and in total Crossrail will use eight of the mammoth TBM’s to construct the 42 kilometres of tunnel required undertaking ten individual tunnel drives to construct the 6.2m diameter rail tunnels.

The TBM’s range up to 7.1 metres in diameter and each is fitted with a full face cutter head which rotates at around 1 to 3 rpm. As the TBM advances forward the cutter head excavates the ground. The loosened material is removed from the cutter head via a screw conveyor, which moves the material through the back of the TBM and out of the tunnel via a conveyor belt.

http://www.handyshippingguide.com/sh...n-project_3764

[LondonFox]

Interesting stuff about the Cross Rail tunnel boring machines. Europe's largest construction project. (see link at bottom)

Meet the giant tunnelling machines that will construct our tunnels...

http://www.crossrail.co.uk/tunnellin.../#.T-o_GitYumB

[LondonFox]

BAM to build £12m library in east London




BAM Construction’s London team has won the contract to build a £12m customer service centre and library building for Newham Council.

The job is part of a wide-ranging regeneration scheme of the Town Hall Campus for the local authority.

The Grade II listed town hall buildings will also be refurbished under the East Ham Civic Campus scheme which has a total value of £20.8m

Main construction work will start next month and the scheme is due for completion in autumn 2013.

BAM worked closely with the councils design team and English Heritage to get planning approval for the alteration work to the listed buildings.

Construction director Andy Mason said: “BAM is very pleased to be delivering these important facilities for Newham Council.

“A great deal of work was required from all parties to make this scheme a reality, and BAM is delighted to have played its part in making that happen.

“We look forward to creating some excellent facilities for council staff and local residents.”

The architects are Rick Mather, who worked with BAM on the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology in Oxfordshire.

http://www.constructionenquirer.com/...n-east-london/

[LondonFox]

Mayor backs second Stansted runway



Boris Johnson has backed construction of a second runway at London’s Stansted airport as a stopgap solution to the capacity crunch at the capital’s Heathrow hub.
The Conservative London mayor said expansion of the airport would be “a good interim solution” to the growing problem of overcrowding in the skies above the capital and the migration of international air traffic to rival hubs in Europe.

Mr Johnson, who opposes a third runway at Heathrow but believes a new hub airport will be needed in the long term, told the London Evening Standard: “If we built another runway at Stansted and put in a high-speed line, that would be a fantastic step in the right direction. And then [we can] look at another hub. All options must be looked at.”
His comments followed suggestions last week that the Conservatives might drop their longstanding opposition to expansion at Heathrow were they to win a governing majority in 2015. The Liberal Democrats are fiercely opposed to any U-turn on the policy, which is enshrined in the coalition agreement.

A government review of aviation strategy is due to be published this summer. Potential solutions to the UK’s hub airport capacity crunch include expansion at Stansted or Gatwick, a new hub airport in the Thames estuary and a high-speed rail link from Gatwick to Heathrow.

BAA, the Heathrow operator, said building a new runway at Stansted would not solve the UK’s hub airport capacity crisis. “Stansted has plenty of spare capacity already . . . All a second runway at Stansted would achieve would be to increase the amount of spare capacity there,” the company said in a statement.

Business groups, including the CBI employers’ organisation and London First, which represents businesses in the capital, have called for urgent action on airport capacity.
Colin Stanbridge, chief executive of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, on Monday welcomed Mr Johnson’s efforts to address the problem but challenged his Stansted proposal. “This solution will not address the need for a fully functioning and effective hub airport which is so desperately required,” he said.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/217468bc-b...#axzz1ywZpBSel

[LondonFox]

Thames port to transform UK distribution



According to its satellite navigation display screen, the Land Rover in which the Financial Times is travelling has left dry land behind and is now deeply immersed in the waters of the Thames estuary.
Such is the pace of land reclamation at London Gateway, a vast port being constructed on the northern banks of the Thames estuary, that the imaging maps used by satnav providers have yet to catch up with the rapidly advancing coastline at this monumental infrastructure project.

The development promises not only to bring fresh hope to an area demoralised by the imminent closure of Coryton, the refinery it abuts on the Essex coast, but to transform the way goods are distributed in the UK.

Simon Moore, London Gateway chief executive, said: “The cost of distribution is only increasing as fuel prices and congestion continue to grow. So if you can make the ship do as much work as possible, that will reduce the time the cargo spends on the road. That is worth hundreds of millions of pounds to importers and exporters.”

The £1.5bn facility, owned by Dubai Ports World, lies 25 miles from London. With a quayside 2.7km long, it will be able to take up to six of the new generation of vast cargo ships, 400m long and capable of carrying more than 14,000 containers. When it opens towards the end of next year, its annual capacity of 3.5m TEU (20-foot equivalent units, a standard industry measure) will make it the country’s biggest port.

Just behind the berths, on an area that is now a huge building site, will lie a 9m sq ft logistics park – Europe’s biggest – where cargo owners, retailers and logistics companies may hold or process goods for onward dispatch. If all goes to plan, many goods that are currently transported by lorry to depots elsewhere in the UK – often to be brought back to the south-east – will go directly to their owners.

Alan Braithwaite, chairman of LCP Consulting, a supply chain logistics consultancy, and visiting professor at Cranfield School of Management, said the port had the potential to be “transformational”. “We have UK supply chains designed around the golden triangle in the Midlands. Many goods are taken there and come back again. London Gateway addresses this with the port-centric idea of not moving things past where they need to go.”

The market has an appetite for more warehousing space in the south-east, he added. “We’re advising clients about putting capacity in the south-east for their operations and there’s a serious shortage of appropriate sites because of planning issues.”
DP World, which operates 60 ports around the world, has yet to announce publicly any retailers or logistics companies as customers of the new site, but Mr Moore said the company was speaking to hundreds of companies in the UK and Asia, including high-street names, and the project had received “strong commercial interest and support”.
Its owners say the privately funded scheme will directly employ 12,000 and upwards of 30,000 indirectly, with no assistance from the taxpayer.

George Kieffer, vice-chairman for the South East Local Economic Partnership, said the development would be a boost for the area, which is reeling from the loss of about 900 jobs at the Coryton refinery. “Eastwards of Canary Wharf is not one of the most prosperous areas of the UK so a development like the port and particularly the ancillary logistics hub must be good news for productive and high value jobs.”

The project has undoubtedly created employment for ecological groups, several of which were hired to relocate the 350,000 voles, newts, badgers, snakes and other animals that the company found on the site.

But an unresolved question among local civic leaders and business people is whether the transport infrastructure linking the port with the capital and the south-east region will be capable of shouldering the additional burden of traffic it creates.
Cllr John Kent, leader of Thurrock council, called for the Department for Transport to address the problems around junctions 30 and 31 of the M25 – already a bottleneck for the region. “For people in Thurrock, when those junctions grind to a halt the whole borough backs up for 10 miles in every direction.”
A related bugbear is the congestion that routinely builds up around the tolls of the Dartford Crossing over the Thames.

John Dallaway, policy manager for Essex Chambers of Commerce, said the onus was on the government rather than DP World. “The Highways Agency is working to do away with tollbooths by introducing free flow technology, so you will pay in advance. But it should have been sorted out some time ago.”

Asked if broader uncertainty in the global economy – and particularly in Europe – will pose a threat, Mr Moore brushes off the suggestion, arguing that London Gateway’s capacity to handle the biggest ships in the world will settle the question. “We’re reconnecting the UK’s biggest economic zone directly with our biggest suppliers in China, south-east Asia and the Indian subcontinent. That’s a fantastic foundation on which you can serve the UK.”

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7d37700c-a...#axzz1ywZpBSel

[LondonFox]

Plans approved for nearly 3,000 homes in London's biggest regeneration zone



Two major development projects in London's biggest regeneration zone, Nine Elms, have been approved by Wandsworth Council, paving the way for nearly 3,000 new homes.

The 'One Nine Elms' scheme (pictured) would create two new mixed use tower blocks within the emerging Vauxhall tall building cluster providing 487 new homes, office space and a hotel.

Submitted in detail, the plans include replacing the existing 1970s tower block on the corner of Wandsworth Road and Nine Elms Lane with two new towers of 58 and 43 storeys.

The council said a total of 51 homes will be made available through Intermediate Rent and the developer will make a further contribution of £6.8m towards providing more affordable housing in the local area.

The New Covent Garden Market scheme - submitted as an outline planning application - would see the country’s biggest fresh produce market completely overhauled, providing up to 2,491 new homes, shops, cafes, bars, commercial space and a 200-bed hotel on land no longer needed for the market operation.

The council said the approved scheme would see the 40-year-old market facilities upgraded with the aim of safeguarding the future of its 200 independent businesses and 2,500 jobs.

At 195 hectares acres, the Nine Elms regeneration zone - which includes 450 acres of land between Battersea Park and Lambeth Bridge on the South Bank of the Thames - is the biggest in central London. More than 1,000 new homes are currently under construction there and another 12,000 are coming through the planning pipeline.

Up to 24,000 construction jobs could be created during the delivery programme and the completed district would support an additional 25,000 new permanent jobs for London.

Wandsworth Council’s planning chairman Cllr Nick Cuff said: “We’re making tremendous progress in Nine Elms. Each new development will create homes, new open spaces and new job opportunities for local people.

“By the time the process is complete this old industrial area will have become an ultra modern district on the South Bank, complete with new parks, a public market, two more tube stations, new cultural attractions and all sorts of exciting new businesses. It will be a remarkable transformation.

“The modernisation of New Covent Garden Market is designed to safeguard the future of 2,500 jobs and comes with a contribution of around £63m towards the Northern Line Extension.

“One Nine Elms would see an outdated office block replaced with two glass towers and around half of the site would become a new public square lined with shops, cafes, bars and restaurants.”

Last week Lambeth Council approved an application by Sainsbury’s for the redevelopment of their Nine Elms supermarket. This scheme would create another 737 new homes and allows for one of the area’s new tube stations to be located on the site.

A preferred bidder for Battersea Power Station was also announced recently which could bring forward work on this important Nine Elms site. Enabling works have now started on the site of the new US Embassy which is expected to open in 2017.

http://www.24dash.com/news/housing/2...eneration-zone