London + Regional has got planning permission for its £300m redevelopment of the Albert Island docks site in East London.

Designed by Haworth Tompkins and industrial architect Ashton Smith, the scheme makes provision for a modern boatyard facility and marina, multi-storey last-mile distribution warehousing and light industrial buildings, long-term storage and flatted factory typologies, as well as new housing and a new HQ for the Royal Docks Management Authority.

It will also create a well-connected, sustainable hub with a mix of uses, good cycling and walking links, and an enhanced river frontage and improved public realm, establishing much needed employment uses in an integrated piece of the City.

Graham Haworth, Director and Founding Director of Haworth Tompkins, said: “After a five-year design and planning process, we are really looking forward to starting work on this exciting project in Newham for L+R which will create a new ground-breaking sustainable employment hub within the Royal Docks, combining state of industrial infrastructure with great landscape and placemaking, excellent cycling and walking links and enhanced river and lock-side frontages. “

In all, 70,000sqm of employment space and 1,200 new jobs will be provided; the key to achieving the density and diversity has been co-locating and stacking different typologies and functions.

One of the new warehouse facilities planned for the Albert Island redevelopment

To maximise land use for the industrial space, the architects created a ‘table-top’ strategy which provides a transfer deck nine metres above ground, offering a steel ‘chassis’ frame onto which various enclosures are added.

On the riverside frontage, the form incorporates a seven-storey, 20,000sqm flatted factory, the Ideas Factory, to accommodate a variety of start-up businesses and educational usages. This range of innovative, mixed-use multilevel industrial typologies, currently not delivered in the UK market, is an interesting, exemplar solution for modern London’s urgent industrial needs. 

 The ground-breaking architecture is supported by a high-quality landscape design by LDA, designers of the Olympic Park, improving permeability across the site and access to the river frontage.

Technical design work for the first buildings is now underway, with an anticipated start on site in 2022.