Native Land has received planning approval for a new 110,000-sq-ft sustainable office at its Bankside Yards development in the London Borough of Southwark.
Designed by leading office architects Stiff+Trevillion, as part of PLP Architecture’s Bankside Yards masterplan, the 13-storey building will deliver Grade A sustainable workspace to meet SME demand in the undersupplied South Bank market.
The approval conceives a new-era workspace as a part of the UK’s first major mixed-use, fossil fuel-free development, with highly sustainable features that will help occupiers achieve their own ESG goals. Designed to achieve BREEAM Outstanding, its all-electric building systems to be supplied by a renewable energy source means it will be net zero carbon in operation.
Embodied carbon will be kept to a minimum by designing a more solid façade that will reduce solar gain and heat loss and a post-tensioned concrete structure.
The building will focus on indoor/outdoor space, featuring large terraces on the sixth and tenth floors. The project will enhance the biodiversity of the site, turning a previously inaccessible area into nearly 4,300 sq ft of new public realm, including a pocket park. The building will also be fully integrated into landscaped green space, as part of Bankside Yards’ 3.3 acres of riverside public realm.
The approved plans include a 68% increase in affordable workspace to 10,763-sq-ft including 7,000-sq-ft of flexible Class E space at Ground Floor level, particularly suitable for the growing creative, media and technology businesses in the South Bank area.
Basement levels will hold 300 cycle spaces, higher than GLA standards, to accommodate one of the major priorities for occupiers post-pandemic.
Jay Squier, Executive Director at Native Land, said:
“Building 8 will meet undersupplied demand in the Southwark market for workspaces that are high quality as well as highly sustainable with outdoor spaces, flexibility and affordability designed-in from the beginning. Having worked in Bankside for more than a decade, we have seen the increased presence of media, creative, technology and professional businesses. Building 8’s offer to smaller businesses will compliment our nearby Arbor building, and recently approved Building 1, which are both designed for larger corporate users.”
