Description

The Chelsea Harbour development received planning permission as a mixed use development in the mid 1980’s. The buildings surrounding the harbour are in a variety of uses including residential, offices and a hotel.
There has been a deliberate attempt to give each building its own character using a number of pastiche styles, none of which it is considered have been carried out with any particular merit. The harbour acts as a unifying object to the development, with each building’s axis designed to make the most of this feature. It is felt that the development is starting to look slightly tired and dated and is in need of a new lease of life, which is particularly true of the Kings Quay building which is considered to have the weakest composition of the group.

The proposals relate to the top floor apartment Nos. 8, 17, 26 and 37 of Kings Quay

The site represents an opportunity to increase housing supply within the existing building fabric and improve on the building’s uninspiring roofscape.

The scheme adopts a low energy design philosophy making the most of its southern facade. It particularly focuses on promoting sustainable environmental quality through high quality design standards. In response, this design brief is focused on the requirement to create housing opportunities that integrates the principles of ecological development with the principles of high quality contemporary design.

Proposals
The concept for the development is to use the site appraisal to identify the urban form of the immediate context and to provide a rationale that both enhances and improves the existing site form. The surrounding buildings were developed to look as if they were built over many years, and as such have created a complex roofscape without the qualities of the city block it tries to emulate.

Kings Quay’s roof profile is weak and unrefined both to the river and the harbour and this development provides the opportunity to address these issues, and to suggest a building which reignites Chelsea Harbour’s roofscape. The general concept seeks to address the following issues:

A - Redress the building’s relationship with the river and reinforcement of this axis.
B - Address the elevational treatment of the upper floors to unify the end and long sections of the building, emphasising the primary axis to the river and harbour areas.
C - Create a beautifully made form fl oating above the existing building to portray the perception of high quality living that encompasses Chelsea Harbour.

The proposal is to replace 4 apartments of 777m2 total area with 8 x 3 bed apartments of total area 1799m2. This presents a rare opportunity to increase residential numbers with minimum implications whilst reinvigorating Kings Quay and the Chelsea Harbour basin with a well crafted piece of architecture which will emphasise the quality of living that the area aspires to.