Greenwich Housing & Community Building

Categories Arts & Culture, Workplace, Education, Housing
Clients Knight Dragon, Quintain
Project Team David Hills, Martin Pearson, Michael Breen, Joanne Cairns, Eleanor Alexander, Ian Love

DSDHA's housing and community building are beacons for the regeneration of the Greenwich Peninsula. The mixed-use scheme, with 139 new homes, builds on the area's character, consolidating the identity of this rapidly changing area, whilst also celebrating its industrial past.

Creating a sense of place

Our project provides great housing with common areas for residents to socialise, work and relax – all essential elements to create a sense of place.

By challenging the rigid grid of the original masterplan, we redrew the boundaries for our two plots and combined them to establish a more harmonious hierarchy of streets and a new public park, Reminder Gardens. This spatial strategy, combined with a careful articulation of the heights and massing, maximises daylight while reducing overshadowing and overlooking. These shifts have carved out new views to and from the river and more legible routes connecting local amenities.

A contemporary village hall
The Neighbourhood Building - 'Aperture' - is envisaged as a village hall for today at the heart of the development. It comprises a retail unit, café and residents' lobby on the ground floor, with a crèche, prayer space, estate management and a gym above, all accessible from the shared lobby and a dramatic staircase that connects the activities.

The building’s wedge-shaped form rises five storeys, with prominent and permeable street frontage to all three sides. The bespoke glazed façades emphasise an open and welcoming nature. An outer screen of anodised aluminium fins and perforated metal panels wraps around each elevation, evoking the industrial works that once stood on the site and creating a range of transparencies in response to the activities within and opening up views towards the Peninsula.

A garden at the heart of the residences
'The Fulmar' provides a tenure-blind mix of affordable and private apartments (60 private, 60 social rent and 19 intermediate) over ten storeys, with a retail unit on the ground floor and a residents' rooftop pavilion. It forms three distinct buildings with independent entrances, all set around a raised landscaped garden: an important shared space for play and social interaction which overlooks the surrounding streets.

A broader urban framework

The urban strategy for the scheme also comprised the Coal Jetty: a flexible container for performance, exhibitions, educational spaces and a café to act as a catalyst for the cultural renaissance of the area. Accessible from the river, the Jetty extends the journey of visitors and residents into the Peninsula, down Pilot Walk, through the community building, towards Central Park.

Team:

Architect: DSDHA

Interior Design (Neighbourhood Building): DSDHA
Interior Design (Housing concept): Jestico & Whiles

Signage: DSDHA
Structural Engineer: Price & Myers

M&E Engineer: Forman Roberts
Quantity Surveyor and Cost Consultant: Gardiner & Theobald
Landscape Architect/Designer: Turkington Martin Studio

Main Contractor: Kier Group