Nine Elms
- Client: Sainsbury's
- Contacts: Charles Graham, Matthew Gray
Located with Nine Elms as its center, London’s largest transformation project has redefined the Opportunity Area between Vauxhall and Battersea. Creating a new piece of City along the southern edge of the river, delivering new homes, retail and commercial space designed around a new park for the City as well as delivering the new Northern Line tube extension.
Rolfe Judd were involved from inception of the Masterplan, working with the GLA, Councils, Clients and Architects, responding to the Vauxhall, Nine Elms Battersea Opportunity Area as part of the Mayors London Plan.
Conceptually the principle was to establish a new park linking over 30,000 new homes. The intent was to create a completely new part of London. Nine Elms was to be the heart of the area, based around the American Embassy which would link trough to the Power Station at Battersea, delivering in addition new places to live, work and play.
Sainsbury’s our client, set the brief, to establish a new superstore, whilst delivering a new place to live. The 13-acre site was to redevelop the area in line with the masterplan whilst defining the edge of the site in relation to the existing context.
Whilst delivering a new store for the area, the residential arrangement of seven buildings, from seven to thirty-seven storeys, is adjacent and above the store. An extensive roof terrace of beautifully landscaped gardens provides a peaceful sanctuary above the store for residents to enjoy. The new, replacement store is re-positioned to face Wandsworth Road, to connect closely with the new transport link.
Delivering an area of this scale needed to develop a strong concept, the metallic history of the Nine Elms area created the direction for the design.
Each tower developed around a spiral concept individually clustered. The elevations are broken down into segments which elongate as the tower rises, they also provide a sense of scale at a lower level which complements the surrounding buildings.
The towers have been designed to have one identity metal and one continuity metal which creates an identifiable link between the towers. The use of raw metals and glass creates an industrial/engineered facade which overall complements the buildings form.
