Canada Water Dockside | Canada Water | Approved

Canada Water Project Sites C and E | Southwark | 150m | 43 fl | Approved



Chipperfield Leads Sellar Canada Water Project

Published on 28-02-2013 by Skyscrapernews.com



Canada Water has become a bit of a hotspot in London for redevelopment since the Jubilee Line station opened giving it quick connections to both the CBD of Canary Wharf and commuter stations such as London Bridge. This looks like being built on if proposals by Sellar Design + Development and Canada Water (Developments) go ahead.

The scheme features construction on sites C and E with a number of major new buildings including a tower that will be almost 150 metres in height above ground level making it the first truly tall building to be designed by David Chipperfield for London. This tower, Building C4 has been designed to work as a contrast to the horizontal nature of the water it overlooks and juxtapose vertically. It will also overlook a new square, complete with a slightly raised central lawn, that will be framed by two other buildings, C2 and the 75 metre tall C3.

C3 is penned as a medium rise block that has been massed to assume the middle ground between the tower and shorter building that stand each side of it. C2 has cantilevers designed into it at either end to create views into and out of the square. Along with C1, which has been penned to fit in with the scale of existing nearby residential buildings and work as a perimeter block, it should form a new tree-lined street at least 17 metres that runs roughly east to west from Surrey Quays Road to Canada Water basin.

Elsewhere there is also the possible to create a small new urban woodland on the south eastern edge of the site by planting trees such as Scots Pines.

E1 stands away from the rest of the development on the other side of Surrey Quays Road filling an entire block. It's a collection of stepped levels rising from a shared podium with no less than seven individual service shafts dotted around it.

Building C1 has been designed by Maccreanor Lavington Architects, Buildings C2, C3 and C4 have been designed by David Chipperfield Architects, and Building E1 is designed by Claus en Kann Architecten.

Source: SkyscraperNews.com

For updates on the project, the SE London thread probably has it covered, even though no one's quoted Goth's piece in full. But there's no poll there, so this new thread is super fun. Super fun.

The four options are all problematic, though. Should it not be built? No, Rotherhithe will clearly benefit from a Chipperfield-designed development (I assume we're focusing on the three Chipperfield buildings).

Are they in the perfect location? I suppose the exact placement seems a little haphazard and doesn't really relate to the freshwater lake particularly well. But here's site C, and lo and behold they're smack bang on it. On balance: a yes.

Perfect height and shape? Only for the tower. The building at the back of the square (C3) is stumpy, and would benefit from a lot more height, or, better, a total redesign. The building on the Deal Porter side of the square has Churchill Gardens/Heygate-style massing and is a disaster. It shouldn't be taller, or shorter, it should be dissolved in acid - or at least split up smaller blocks of more varied appearance. Yuck.

So I don't know how to vote, but I hear all the cool kids are voting "should be taller" so I'll follow the crowd.

:banana: