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[ Back ]JTP's Project Day
17/10/2012
John Thompson & Partners recently took a day out of the studio to visit four of its projects in London and South East England.
The busy day took in a range of schemes that featured riverside regeneration; inner city placemaking; a new neighbourhood beside a rural country park; and the UK's largest zero carbon neighbourhood.
The first stop was Kew Bridge, a mixed use development along the River Thames, for St George. Its dynamic location along the River Thames, and proximity to heritage and conservation areas, influenced the scheme's design, layout and massing, which is formed by a series of inter-connected buildings. Upon completion, the brownfield site will have over 300 new homes and offer an enhanced riverside walkway, accessible and sensitively landscaped public realm and open space, and new public piazzas across 50 % of the entire site.
The second stop was Dickens Yard, a development in the heart of Ealing, where Malcolm Wood, Land Director, of St George gave a ‘behind-the-scenes' tour of the mixed use scheme currently under construction. Malcolm Wood commented that "Placemaking principles were at the heart of the Dickens Yard masterplan"- a site that was formally a council owned car park. The development will create a new public square and shopping street for Ealing town centre, focused around a buzzing street life, and nearly 700 apartments, while also respecting the area's existing architecture, which includes three listed buildings.
The third stop took JTP out of London to Edenbrook , located in Fleet, Surrey - a Berkeley Group development of 300 homes with a new countryside park right on the doorstep. Using the site's existing natural features, Edenbrook has been planned as clusters of distinct character areas surrounded by natural landscape. The new park features meadows, wildlife and green areas that sit closely to the new homes ranging in size from 1 bedroom apartments to 5-bedroom detached houses, which have been designed to reinterpret the Arts and Crafts style.
The last stop brought JTP to its award-winning Graylingwell Park in Chichester, designed for Linden Homes and Affinity Sutton in conjunction with the HCA. Upon completion, Graylingwell Park will be the UK's largest zero carbon neighbourhood with up to 800 homes across a 36 ha site that was once home to Graylingwell Hospital. The JTP team was able to walk around Phase One of the site, which is complete and fully occupied, and enjoyed a sneak peak of Phase Two, currently under construction. The tour also featured a stop at the development's Energy Centre, a combined heat and power plant located within the site's existing water tower, which impressively provides all the homes at Graylingwell Park with heating and hot water.
All in all, it was a great and varied day both in and out of London.
To see some of the highlights from JTP's Project Day, visit JTP's Flickr Set
