Heylyn Square
- Client: The London Borough of Tower Hamlets
- Architect: LTS Architects
- Engineers: Price and Myers
- Mechanical Electrical: Aecom
- Landscape Architecture: Staton Cohen Landscape Architecture
- Arboricultural: Marcus Foster
- Location: Bow, Borough of Tower Hamlets
- Project Status: Planning achieves for the housing 2019 & square 2020.
A new high-density housing project, replacing an existing single storey commercial buildings and garage site, with a separate engagement to regenerate the existing square.
To develop the scheme there was close collaboration between LTS Architects and the consultant team to ensure that the footprint of the new architectural form was embedded within the existing urban context of Heylyn Square, the Malmesbury Estate and the proximity to the Gurdwara Sikh Sangat.
The project incorporated highly sustainable objectives for housing to enable the client to adopt the project, in the future, as a model for infill development.
The scheme seeks to connect existing spaces within a new landscape structure, including an extensive green wall of climbers, a rain garden and new playground. The design was developed for the planning application, Stage 3 with Employers’ Requirements Specification. The project will be delivered as a design and build scheme.
Our scope extended to include the regeneration of the existing public square, with engagement with different community groups. This included open drop-in sessions, advertised by Tower Hamlets and direct contact with the Tenants Association, Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, the Gurdwara and Central Foundation Girls School.
The planting design has been developed inline with Tower Hamlets’ biodiversity strategy, to enhance and support local wildlife habitats, with planting with year round value, visually seasonal variety and providing contact with nature for residents.
The project will see the retention of the existing mature trees and reconfiguration of the abandoned open space and patches of grass into a coherent space, incorporating activities for all the community – with adult fitness pieces, seating and a playground with multiple swings.