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A 3.2 hectare residential and retail development on the Thames has been submitted for planning consent. Designed by Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands for clients Sainsbury’s and Helical Bar, Fulham Wharf transforms an existing Sainsbury’s supermarket and derelict warehouses into a new superstore wrapped by 472 homes, two new public spaces, an extension to the public riverside and a new ecological garden on an abandoned jetty.
The new Sainsbury’s is screened by residential ‘townhouses’, containing duplexes, and these follow the form and scale of the historic precedent set by existing locally listed warehouse buildings. Behind them are apartment buildings, and rising in height toward the river, there are four slender towers of 9 to 17 storeys, providing legibility across the site and a defined presence on the River Thames.
The public realm is radically improved by the scheme; the existing concrete jetty is to be cultivated as an ecology platform; there is a new public square on the river with a café and a restaurant and a landscaped frontage to the store; and a network of dedicated pedestrian routes link the Sands End neighbourhood to the river walk.
Director Alex Lifschutz said: “We have used a series of building types and scales to create a layered development which responds both to the scale of the Sands End neighbourhood and the former industrial buildings on the river. This is generous new housing with front doors on streets concealing an ample store.”