Client: Leicester City Council

Location: Soar Island, Leicester, UK

Design date: 2015, Competition entry only

Design team: J Wu, J Campon

 

 

Design description

a LOHAS NEIGHBOURHOOD with 24hr vitality. The development composes of office, town house and apartment (1-2B), ground floor commercial (cafe, snake bar, food stores, grocery etc), and a gym as the anchor shop facing the trees. Plus a basement offering 70parking spaces and plant rooms/storage.

High quality homes  

• to provokes life style of health and sustainability (LOHAS);
• Easy access to amenities such as parking, gym, shops and cafés and indeed to the city centre;
• East-west orientation and private terraces/balconies offer optimised solar access and fantastic views Support for local businesses
• Housing the people working in the city centre;
• Quality office spaces with engaging views just off the city centre;
• Gym with views for the residents and wider community;
• better open spaces and waterfront for residents and staff;
• generates business/employment on site;
• curtain walling integrated LED oversize display on the south contributes to city streetscape;

Optimised waterfront

• the biological/topographical features on the Soar River side to be retained, while timber decks/gangways to offer more intimate human-water experience, and activate waterfront on the west;
• to optimise the embankment on the south which currently has unfriendly rigid drop between pavement and water level;
• ramps on the east to better link the Tow path with the shops;

Places for Nature

• Self-restrained footprint only over the ‘brown’ area of the site, retaining a landscaped south and a preserved north and west, while extra floor area is achieved by extensive overhanging;
• stepped gardening on the south, allowing occasional flooding over a predictable area, offer better roaming/access for the birds from the River;
• a Green core within the building enclosure to reduce surface runoff and to improve permeability;

Improved access and connectivity

• Access to the Waterfront as mentioned above;
• ramps to link the tow path with the courtyard and shops, road-side disabled car parking planned along the downgraded road between bridges, overhangs and street level shops to benefit cyclists and walkers;
• pedestrian network throughout the building at the street level, starting from the southern terrace, four bridges and tow paths, through the planted courtyard and right to the northern woodland;
• Canal Bridge restricted to access only/non thru traffic , Soar Lane River Bridge downgrade to ped-cycle,

Positive response to Leicester’s heritage

• the Soar Lane River Bridge and Canal Bridge to implement traffic calming as above;
• Enhanced spatial nodes designed to receive the Hitchcock’s Weir Footbridge on the north and the Evan’s Weir Bridge on the south;
• re-use the bases to former Swannington Railway Line Bridge by building lightweight timber deck over and connecting with the footpath system;
• The art installation ‘Demostaph’ to be relocated within the site and fitted into a terraced setting.
• building heights to reflect surrounding urban scales: two storey on the east wing to echo the Canal-east warehouses,   four storey on the west wing to suit the large greens on River-west.▪

 

eventually……..

Five practices including Ash Sakula and Sarah Wigglesworth Architects have been shortlisted for an RIBA ideas competition, for which more than 80 submissions were received from all over the world.

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/five-in-frame-for-leicester-ideas-competition/5075014.article