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Aerial view of the 17.4ha site, looking westwards<\/p>\n\t
Source:Earls Court Development Company<\/p><\/div>\n
The final parts of the famous 1930s Art Moderne exhibition centre were flattened in 2017 to make way for Terry Farrell\u2019s unrealised proposal for four self-enclosed urban villages. But two years later the estate\u2019s then developer, Capco, sold the site to its current owner: a joint venture between Delancey, Dutch pension fund manager APG and Transport for London operating under the ECDC banner.<\/p>\n
The design, site boundaries, finances and sustainability aims have all changed markedly since Farrell\u2019s earlier vision.\u00a0<\/span>The ECDC team says it wants its \u00a310 billion scheme to look to the future, being a \u2018good ancestor\u2019 by leaving a positive long-term legacy.\u00a0<\/span>Its overarching driver is to create \u2018a people-centric and planet-conscious development for the 21st and 22nd centuries\u2019.<\/p>\n That means building with sustainable materials (\u2018timber where possible\u2019), reusing existing structures and creating one of the largest energy-loop heating networks in the country. It also means designing for a changing UK climate where winters are expected to become warmer and wetter, and summers hotter and drier.<\/p>\n The northern edge of the masterplan as viewed looking eastwards towards central London<\/p>\n\t Source:Earls Court Development Company<\/p><\/div>\n As carbon emissions continue to rise, the Met Office predicts that by 2050, lengthy heatwaves \u2013 like the record-setting hot summer in 2018 \u2013 could happen every other year. According to scientific journal Nature Sustainability<\/i>, the UK is on course for a 30 per cent increase in uncomfortably hot\u00a0days.<\/p>\n At Earls Court, climate resilience has been one of the brief\u2019s core strands, built into the masterplan since its genesis four years ago.\u00a0A key move has been to give over 60 per cent of the entire site to open spaces \u2013 either for people or nature. Green roofs are also planned, equivalent in area to nine football pitches.<\/p>\n Importantly, phase one, as well as delivering the first workspaces for clean climate-tech companies and around 1,500 new homes, includes the 2ha Table Park. This pivotal public space will be built over the existing \u2018deck\u2019 concrete structure spanning the West London Line, which runs through the site.<\/p>\n Linked to this high-level plateau is the Cascades \u2013 a stepped parkland with cooling water features, entirely sustained by harvested rainwater. The system has a storage capacity for enough water to ensure uninterrupted operation during a 60-day\u00a0drought.<\/p>\n A view of the Table Park, sitting over the railway<\/p>\n\t Source:Earls Court Development Company<\/p><\/div>\n The ECDC puts a high value on water. It is pioneering a comprehensive \u2018water-neutral\u2019 management strategy to maximise water capture and reuse, and minimising site runoff from heavier, stronger, shorter downpours to stop sewer and surface water flooding neighbouring residents\u2019 basements (again).<\/p>\n The planting strategy includes climate-resilient species that need less water alongside more than 1,000 new trees \u2013 half of which would be semi-mature \u2013 doubling the number of trees in the entire Earl\u2019s Court ward.\u00a0The developer has also pledged to \u2018set a new benchmark in urban air quality\u2019 aiming to achieve pollutant levels that are at least 10 per cent lower than the borough\u00a0average.<\/p>\n Cross-section of the Cascades showing water storage, drainage, and reuse<\/p>\n\t Source:Earls Court Development Company<\/p><\/div>\n The team has worked hard to create a flow through the long-closed-off site for air, people and biodiversity. The scheme effectively introduces an always-open, biodiverse corridor stretching from north to south. As SLA partner Rasmus Astrup puts it, this means a \u2018fox could walk around Earls Court without crossing any major roads\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Through years of consultation, some hard decisions have had to be made, such as rubbing out plans for some buildings\u00a0altogether.\u00a0<\/span>Architect Sharon Giffen, head of design at the ECDC and formerly of Foster + Partners, explains: \u2018We originally had five buildings proposed around [the existing 1962] Empress State Building. We removed the corner block allowing the [other] buildings to breathe more, make the public space more generous and most importantly improve the microclimate.\u2019 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In terms of the buildings themselves, the design of the fa\u00e7ades has been developed \u2018to reflect the tension between providing an appropriate level of daylighting within the apartments and minimising solar gains through\u00a0fenestration\u2019.<\/p>\n The team\u2019s sustainability goals were developed so they would be \u2018considered ambitious if set in 2050\u2019, and a long road into a uncertain future lies ahead before the Earls Court vision is fully realised. The first step will be winning planning approval. Subject to that, work could start on site in 2026.<\/p>\n The new Aisling Gardens overlooked by dRMM-designed housing<\/p>\n\t Source:Earls Court Development Company<\/p><\/div>\n Earls Court has a high level of resilience embedded into the project to mitigate against future climate change, putting the development in a strong position among other major London developments.<\/p>\n The ECDC has made a very progressive decision when it comes to climate change by giving as much land back to nature as it gives to development. This opens the door to climate adaptation methods such as improved biodiversity reducing the urban heat island effect and water retention and absorption in SuDS and rain gardens for flooding resilience of the area, which includes future storm scenarios.<\/p>\n This creates a positive natural environment in an urban setting \u2013 less concrete, more jungle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2018Bringing the wonder back to Earls Court\u2019 reads the developer\u2019s strapline for the 20-year plans to create a new neighbourhood on the largely empty 17.4ha former Earls Court Exhibition Centre site in west\u00a0London. The outline masterplan for the Earls Court Development Company (ECDC) has been designed by Hawkins\\Brown, Studio Egret West and Danish landscape architect …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":915,"featured_media":760643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"ep_exclude_from_search":false},"categories":[681],"tags":[2315,2886,1278,1167],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/10\/17143833\/CGI-view-from-West-Kensington-1024x641.webp\")
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The sustainability expert\u2019s view: ECDC\u2019s Greg Jones, director at engineer Hoare Lea\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n