Bankside Yards Building 1 gains planning approval

Gillespies' long standing client Native Land has secured planning approval for Building 1 at Bankside Yards. It is an 18-story 80,000 sq ft sustainable work space, designed by Make Architects with a landscape setting by Gillespies.

This represents the next phase of their major redevelopment of a 5.5 acre section of London’s South Bank near the Tate Modern. The eventual scheme will create 350,000 sq ft of next-generation offices and 650 new homes, plus restaurants, hotel, cultural and leisure amenities, set within 3.3 acres of public realm designed by Gillespies.

Gillespies' approach to the public realm has been to draw from the area's rich cultural history, weaving the narrative of the famous frost fair and Shakespeare’s Globe theatre into a contemporary approach to place-making and activation within a significant planting programme. Planting references have been made to the multiple award-winning Gillespies project NEO Bankside - also by Native Land - which is close by.

A new pedestrian route will be created along the railway viaducts, widening the Thames Path from 3m to 11m. The project preserves the existing mature trees of the Rennie Garden, a public park which will be updated as part of the scheme.

The overall £2.5billion investment in Bankside Yards is set to create the UKs first fossil fuel-free, large scale mixed use development in the UK. The first phase, Arbor, a BREEAM Excellent office tower and plaza space, which will be carbon-neutral in operation, is set to open this spring. Building 1 will attain a UGF that’s 50% higher than GLA requirements.

Images (c) Make Architects