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Chelsea Barracks site 'will be an example of urban politeness'
Amar Singh, Evening Standard17 Jul 2008
Full details of Britain's most expensive housing development emerged today.
Nick and Chris Candy's Chelsea Barracks project features a sports centre, 25m swimming pool, boutique hotel, day spa, restaurants, 13-acre underground car park and a Tesco Metro-style supermarket.
The development would have four acres of public green space, with 300 new trees.
Flowers would be co-ordinated to match the exterior of buildings, which would be "staggered" to be less imposing on the area and allow natural light into the site.
The brothers' architectural partners, Rogers Stirk Harbour, will discuss the proposals with Westminster council in September.
They are confident they will secure planning permission after their initial designs were criticised by residents. The Grosvenor Estate described the development as "monotonous, repetitive and totally out of scale".
Lead architect Graham Stirk said: "Our plans have evolved and adapted. We have had discussions with Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, the Greater London Authority, the Royal Hospital, English Heritage and the residents to meet with all the necessary concerns and requirements - and the dialogue continues. "We have taken our cue from surrounding buildings and the history of the site, which used to be pleasure gardens in the 18th century, to create something that is permeable to the public and consistent with the leafy surroundings.
"Some people have felt that we are creating a closed-off area but that is not the case at all. The buildings are fragmented and they will not impose on local areas. This is about urban politeness."
It is estimated the project would take six years to complete.
The Candys, property magnates who cater to the super-rich, bought the site from the Ministry of Defence last year for £1 billion with their Qatari partners. Half of the scheme must include affordable housing. This means that while the Belgravia end of the development would have 22 £50 million penthouse apartments, the hotel and top-end restaurants, the part in Ebury Bridge Road would have oneor two-bedroom flats for key workers, a community centre and the supermarket.
Paul Monaghan, the architect tasked with developing the affordable housing, denied the development would be segregated along class or wealth lines.
Mr Monaghan, of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, said: "It carries on what happens naturally in London. You can have expensive homes very close to council flats."
He added: "On the Ebury Bridge Road side will be a health centre, a community centre and the £40 million sports facility. Our buildings follow a similar theme to the private accommodation.
"Balconies will break up the scale of the building. The living rooms look over sunken gardens and are all south-facing."
The 14 main buildings are inspired by the apartments of nearby Sloane Court. They are decorated with patinated copper - coloured panels designed to blend in with the surrounding areas. Mr Stirk said most of the buildings would not exceed nine storeys.
"The height has been subject to quite a lot of discussions and we feel we have found the right balance now," he said.
The site is owned by Project Blue, a joint venture by Chris Candy's CPC Group - which also owns One Hyde Park - and the Qatari Diar Real Estate. Lee Hallman, Project Blue's design director, said: "Despite the current economic climate, we remain committed to delivering thiswhile other residential developments in London are falling by the wayside."
Reader views (1)
The new proposals look extraordinarily bland and tacky and uninspired, the type of structures that weather poorly, boxes with little cantilevered balconies and metallic fascia panels and flat roofs - will they leak, nine stories could also be very out of scale. Have they remembered to provide motor vehicle parking under cover? They most certainly do not demonstrate any great architectural skill or sympathy for the surroundings - though they certainly are rather better than what was there before, but something more in keeping with Chelsea Hospital would really be a landmark and something to admire - as for mixed development - will it really work or just make a slum of the future.
Well done Prince Charles, good architecture can be made but I must agree that what appears to be planned is dreary and ordinary - there is nothing whatsoever wrong with classical architecture except it can be expensive and requires training and thought, not just straight line repetition on boxes. Buildings must be planned and designed to fit sympathetically with their neighbours - just reflect on the monstrosity that houses the Scottish parliament if one wants to think of one of the worst possible examples, one that no doubt all too many architects praise!
- Ml Scott, Inverness Scotland, 12/05/2009 22:52
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