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Vinoly’s masterplan for London’s iconic Battersea power station restores the building to its original energy producing function
Located along the south bank of the Thames, the 1,561,000sq ft (14.5 ha) site is defined by the iconic power station. The site is one of the largest areas earmarked for development in London, but a string of owners and systematic attempts at its redevelopment, since the buildings closure in 1983, have all failed. The basic organization centres on the Power Station building itself, once the largest brick building in the world, now refurbished to house retail, residential, office, cultural and energy production uses. Beyond the Power Station the site is organised into zones, each of which has a specific purpose, and each a different specification of building facade, organisation and material. These include a ‘high street’ zone for retail and office and a hotel zone. The primary visual and physical connection of the site to the emerging Nine Elms Opportunity Area (the ‘funnel’) provides a further retail and residential offer. Zones flanking either side of the Power Station contain residential units and civic amenities. There is a six acre park to the north of the power station which opens views to and from the power station as well as creating a pedestrian link to Battersea Park to the west. The site will contain the largest CCHP plant in London working off bio-fuel, enabling the Power Station to be Carbon Zero and exporting energy to the wider development area. It brings back its original function, but now as a renewable energy source – its chimneys will exhaust water vapour from the bio fuel energy centres.
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