Soar Island Mixed-Use Urban Design Competition Entry

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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.

  • Ash Sakula Architects, London
  • Drummond Lawlor, London
  • Gutiérrez-Delafuente Arquitectos, Spain
  • Kraft Raum, Germany
  • Sarah Wigglesworth Architects, London

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

 

 

 

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