New Mansion Square, is Phase 4a of the wider redevelopment of Battersea Power Station redevelopment in Wandsworth. Designed by architects Patel Taylor, The project includes 386 affordable homes, within seven concrete framed buildings of up to 18-storeys in height, arranged around a garden square, which echo the style of London’s grand redbrick mansion blocks.
Phase 4a includes a new public green space, children’s play area, a 2,000sqm NHS primary Health Care Centre health centre and 1,000sqm of incubator work spaces for start-up businesses and local entrepreneurs.
The site, which was originally occupied by a number of low-rise industrial sheds, runs adjacent to the South West Main Line out of Vauxhall station. The main block, which consists of 5 towers varying in height from 9 to 18 floors with the remaining two blocks consisting of a single tower each of 9 and 10 floors high, sits within 8m of one of the busiest rail lines in London, requiring an Asset Protection Agreement (APA) to be in place with Network Rail.
Works include the diversion of existing utilities and challenges overcome by the design team include the location of a major Thames Water sewer that runs through the site.
The tallest block sits above the Heathwall main trunk sewer, which had to be bridged over to allow the sewer to be repaired/replaced if required in the future. We have designed a bridging structure supported on two lines of 750mm diameter contig pile walls – running either side of the sewer – which provide support for a suspended ground floor slab and a large transfer structure at first floor that redistributes the loads from the upper floor around the sewer.
The site is located within a busy area surrounded by a market, existing residential apartments and 6 Network Rail train lines. Noise, vibration and dust produced by demolition and construction works must be monitored for impact on neighbouring assets. Collection, transfer and reporting of monitoring data was fully automated. Alert triggers were set at the specified limits so the site team would receive instant alarm emails if thresholds were breached.
The project team’s commitment to minimising disruption from the works was recognised in the project’s exceptional Considerate Constructors report, with an average score of 45/50 and top marks of 15/15 across the Community, Environment and Workforce sections (for comparison the industry average score is 39). Some of the areas strongly referenced in the Considerate Constructors report included Ardmore’s commitment to engagement and social value with neighbours and local school, and Ardmore’s support for healthy living and mental help awareness.
