The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) has called for a £125m mixed-use scheme in Deptford to be redesigned as a purely residential scheme.
CABE said that the plans (pictured) for Roseberry Homes and John Donnan’s 2.45ha (6-acre) Meridian Gateway scheme are too complicated.
The proposals, which were designed by Broadway Malyan for a site on Deptford Creek, currently comprise two blocks totalling 700 flats and 33,000 sq m (355,221 sq ft) of offices, as well as shops and restaurants.
CABE questions both the scale of the offices proposed for the site and the suitability of the site for such development. “The office building seems too large for this location. As there must be some doubt about the demand for office space here, we suspect it would be better to design a building which could more easily accommodate other uses, such as residential, ” its report said.
The commission also criticised proposals for shops as “unconvincing – as they are not on a useful route, we think they are unlikely to flourish”.
CABE added that the overall design of the buildings was “overarticulated, with too many tricky shapes, perhaps to compensate for a sense that the buildings are too large”.
EGi News 23/10/01
