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I've been a long time admirer of the glorious wreck of a building that is the Battersea Power Station. I also became fascinated by the ill-fated attempts to bring it back to some semblance of life, writing about it in Building back in 2003. Such tantalising prospects of renewable that that have been held out for the past two decades left me in two minds. The schemes would have ensured its future preservation but could threaten to soil its character - never was the latter more at risk than with the woefully misjudged plan offered late last week by Rafael Vinoly.
The new scheme, by Real Estate Opportunities (REO), proposes to dwarf the power station next to what appears like some kind of space station that you see in low-budget B-movies. Property Week, which revealed the development on Friday, describes it as "breathtaking". Unfortunately I'd have to add breathtaking-ly crass and inept. And the blandness of what's proposed for the interior of the power station confirms how little regard the developer has for the structure itself.
Former RIBA president George Ferguson somewhat stole my thunder by summing up his disapproval in Building Design. He "honestly thought it was a spoof" when he first saw it and added: "It is the height of arrogance to think that anyone could supplant this supremely muscular building with a vast gimmicky tower – for that is what it is." One harks back to the relative sanity of the plans put forward by Victor Hwang, who had Grimshaws on board, and even leisure developer John Broome back in the 1980s.
What also rankles is the attempt to cover it with green window dressing. The scheme will apparently be the "the UK's first zero-carbon scheme" according to UK managing director of REO owner Treasury Holdings Rob Tincknell. The scheme will also include the first naturally ventilated offices, apparently. I don't doubt the developer's noble intentions but whacking up a monstrosity next door is hardly a great first step to showing sympathy and appreciation for an existing, and truly iconic, structure.
REO has the come face to face with the usual myriad of seemingly impossible hurdles to jump over when it comes to the building itself and the site. The structure itself requires £100m to return it to workable state. Access to the site via public transport is rubbish. So throwing such a vast amount of cash upfront on the project then requires major payback - hence having to develop the site so intensively. Victor Hwang for my mind created something that was at least workable and had some sense of appreciation for the power station. Unfortunately the numbers didn't stack up. REO's numbers may work but the scheme would be a disaster.
This may be a case where the public sector has to step in. And the trick of creating an energy park (of the renewable one) that REO has tried to play could be just the hook the government or the London mayor could use to create a true purpose for such a development. A renewable power station for the capital?
It was only a few weeks ago I passed the largest brick structure in Europe. Its amazing after all the years it has been there what an impact it still has on the passer by. Everyone on the train looks in its direction, almost like its calling each one of their names aloud. No matter that some of these people travel this line 5 times a week, that they maybe even grew up in the power stations shadow, no matter that it has not produced power in over 20 years.
It still produces power, all be it in a different form. It is one of the last places unspoilt in London by the development of the 1990's and 2000's. I was shocked when I saw the CG mock ups of what is intended for the site. It makes a mockery of the site and the people that sweated there to power London in good times and the very worst.
I dont know what will come of this plan, if it will end up the way of all the others or not. What I do know however is, so far, anything that has been put on the table has been rejected but one means or another.......... as I said, Battersea still produces power, even if we cant see it.
Posted by: Paul F | 25 June 2008 at 04:29 PM