SB – Consultation
Consultation
A new project often provokes interest by the local population in which it will take place, the local community might wonder how they could be benefitted by such, or what would be the disadvantages they could face thanks to it. When it comes to a public development (in this case a semi public one) it is necessary to spend care in involving the local community to understand the project, its aims, the reasons behind its design (functionally and aesthetic-wise).
The 30 Mixed-use developement by Sergison Bates Architects, developed in Wandsworth, South London, had its approach toward the local community due to its intervention to a local former paint factory. The building, previously used for the such commercial purpose was planned to be renewed and transformed into a semi-commercial and semi-residential building where the local community could have benefitted thanks to its ground-based shops, office spaces and housing spaces set at affordable prices for the local community.
Funding & client:
The client for this project, Baylight Properties PLC, (occasionally, due to the residential spaces being designated for affordable housings, the participation of the councils may happen to contribute to the building costs).
Project Team & client
Differently from other projects, the architects of this development were already given a brief submitted by the client, where the necessary contractual elements and functions of the building were set for S.B. to find a good design proposal.
The various forms of communication that the client (Baylight Properties PLC) through the architect, should have used, would have comprised exhibitions, imagery and illustrative brochures, public workshops, talks and exhibitions of models and drawings, which would have allowed local people to read about the project.
The tools the architects needed to communicate with the client were the use of drawings, 3d models, cad drawings, physical models and perspective views,
Due to the client’s satisfaction of the designed project, there was no need for the architects design team to amend the project or some of its features.
Site
The design team’s role in relation to the community is to be able to satisfy the client’s need with an interesting and functional design which however shouls also fit and suit the cultural architectural backgrounds of the area. Being mostly an industrial area, Wandsworth was implemented thanks to this project, with a renewed version of what belonged already to the site, the project exploited the space given by not only providing the community with shops, offices and commercial spaces, but also space, eventually, for the runners of such businesses.
Constraints
The site’s main physical constraints would have been represented by the adjacent road, which, during works, might have brought some delay of time, considering the amount of industrial vehicles transiting in front of the project. However a constraint might have been represented by the community itself, which would have complained about the presence of only 11 flats in the development, or perhaps about the crude grey cladding of the building’s tower. Moreover considering the nature of the site, the design choices and material use are more than justified. The access to the site is very direct as there is, as said, an adjacent road on which the facade of the building overlooks.
Due to the former paint factory being built in 1960s, and not belonging to any building listings, allowed the process of design to be faster and the consultation between client and architect to be more direct as, apart from the existing constraints, due to the existing walls and spaces the factory offered, the project was an opened field to be filled the best way possible. The development of the designed 6 storey residential tower was not collided by any legal issues regarding the neighbouring buildings as no residential development is situated in the proximities of the development.
Precedents
The practice might have learned from previous example of residential/commercial buildings, perhaps in the UK this qualities in buildings existed since victorian times, where housing blocks, situated in high streets showcased ground-floor shops and private housing on its upper floors, This scheme was kept for actual projects too, reinterpreted through new means, materials and methods, It would be difficult to say where Sergison Bates got inspired from in order to design such building, as in the past 10 years, London has been overpopulated by similar developments.
Timescales:
The timeline of events shows the preparation of the project by S.B. according to client’s coordinates throughout the second half of 1999.
The following step, according to the RIBA plan of work (parts C,D,E,) was the design process, in which the design would have developed through analysis and technical design, and reached a contractual stage to be confirmed, this process took place between 2000 and 2001.
The pre-construction phase took place at the end of 2001 and involved the RIBA part F, G and H where the tender contract was set to be signed and contractors to be chosen. This phase was confirmed in 2002
The following parts, J and K, the construction phase, involve the mobilisation and the construction until final and practical completion (2004).
The post practical completion (part L) shows the building in use, which took place in the second half of 2004
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