Karli Edmondson
Posted: Monday, August 9, 2010 2:31 pm

Architects, Squire and Partners, were appointed by Berkley Homes to prepare the masterplan for this exceptional site on the South Bank of the Thames. Located between the Greater London Assembly and Tower Bridge, it is currently home to an open area of brownfield land. The finished complex will form part of a series of cultural buildings that connects Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge along the South Bank, and includes the Oxo Tower, Tate Modern, South Bank Centre and Royal Festival Hall. 

The client’s brief was to provide space for a major cultural function within a mixed-use residential development. A scheme was proposed that not only met the complex requirements of the brief, but did so in a way that did not hinder the existing cultural landmarks located around the site.

Squire and Partners began conceiving the masterplan by conducting an in-depth study of local history. The site was once a heavily industrialized working wharf; a place characterised by the buzz of constant activity, with different professions working in close proximity, and the tight organization of space. A street pattern was envisaged that would re-invigorate the area, drawing its inspiration from the warehouses of Shad Thames, while also imagining a series of forms that might add further cultural richness to the South Bank skyline. The scheme would not impinge on Potters Fields Park, and it would also keep key vistas of the river and Tower Bridge. The major building forms would act as a worthy backdrop to the GLA, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London, while its streets would connect the site back into the adjacent urban fabric.

One aspect of the brief – its provision for cultural space – offered great potential to draw people into the site from the riverwalk. In response, Squire and Partners designed this space to be open, transparent and dramatic, thus inviting people walking along the scheme’s periphery to become immediately aware of what is on offer.

Once the vertical organization had been determined, a series of related building typologies were organised in a hierarchical sequence to give the scheme a proper sense of urban depth and complexity, as opposed to an attention-grabbing shell. The first building would lie low to the ground behind Potters Fields, forming a neutral backdrop to the GLA and Tower Bridge. By contrast, the second would take the form of a tall elegant tower, or ‘campanile’, that would be set back in the centre of the scheme, marking the skyline and providing views out over the city. These contrasting horizontal and vertical forms would share the same random patterns of fenestration and thin linear strips of cladding, suggestive of layers of sedimentary rock. These buildings were conceived to be seen within the context of the huge scale of the space of the Thames, buildings which while bold, would seem well mannered - even modest - alongside their expressionist neighbours.

The second building typology consists of three medium-scaled ‘Finger Blocks’ whose white reconstituted stone panels make them visually float above the low riverside building. These were placed in the centre of the site with landscaped open spaces between them, and contain an arrangement of dense but generously proportioned dwellings. The third typology is that of the corner blocks. These much smaller buildings occupy the site between Tower Bridge Road and Tooley Street. They will be clad in a bespoke London stock brick, with cantilevered balconies in reference to the old warehouses of Shad Thames. These buildings provide a gentle increase in scale for the scheme when approached from the south.

The central challenge of the Potters Fields masterplan is to design a complex of buildings that will hold their own within the great public space of the Thames, but that will not detract from the surrounding architecture, nor damage this important public space. The proposed scheme is the product of a lengthy analytical process, its success is dependent as much upon an understanding of history as it is upon a vision for its future.