{"id":780690,"date":"2025-03-31T09:47:26","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T08:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/?p=780690"},"modified":"2025-03-31T09:55:05","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T08:55:05","slug":"studio-egret-west-planning-uks-largest-office-to-resi-permitted-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/studio-egret-west-planning-uks-largest-office-to-resi-permitted-development","title":{"rendered":"Studio Egret West planning \u2018UK\u2019s largest\u2019 office-to-resi permitted development"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The permitted development plans will see 166 flats put into 22-storey Apollo House and 419 flats into 20-storey Lunar House. The 1970 office blocks stand next to each other on Wellesley Road, straddling Sydenham Road.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>As far as it is aware, the practice believes the project will be the country\u2019s largest office-to-resi permitted development scheme to date, exceeding Formation Architects\u2019 404-home Delta Point build-to-rent scheme, also in Croydon.<\/p>\n<p>Lunar House and Apollo House were commissioned by Harry Hyams, best known as the developer of Centre Point, their names reflecting his fascination with space travel in the wake of the 1969 moon landing.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The tower had been used as the headquarters for UK Visas and Immigration. However, the Home Office division has now relocated and Singaporean developer Ho Bee Land is bringing forward the housing plans.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Croydon Council has approved two prior notifications for the scheme, meaning it does not oppose the permitted development based on the limited criteria it is allowed to assess, such as fire safety, contamination and transport impacts.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_780712\" class=\" wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1034px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-780712 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/03\/28170011\/Space-Croydon-Final-Axo-Illustration-1024x887.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"887\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/03\/28170011\/Space-Croydon-Final-Axo-Illustration-1024x887.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.rt.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/03\/28170011\/Space-Croydon-Final-Axo-Illustration-300x260.webp 300w, https:\/\/cdn.rt.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/03\/28170011\/Space-Croydon-Final-Axo-Illustration-768x665.webp 768w, https:\/\/cdn.rt.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/03\/28170011\/Space-Croydon-Final-Axo-Illustration-230x199.webp 230w, https:\/\/cdn.rt.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/03\/28170011\/Space-Croydon-Final-Axo-Illustration-150x130.webp 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Axonometric view of permitted development plans<\/p>\n\t<p class=\"inline_image_source\" style=\"max-width: 1034px;\">Source:Studio Egret West<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Studio Egret West said its scheme \u2018re-imagines the future of these iconic, space-age-inspired structures [\u2026], ensuring their sensitive reuse while laying the foundation for an innovative and holistic regeneration of the site\u2019.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The practice said it would preserve the architectural character of the buildings through \u2018carefully aligned partitions and window mullions\u2019, while gallery access spaces will enjoy natural daylight and panoramic views.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The flats will be of various sizes, including family homes, with 75 per cent exceeding national minimum space standards. The flats will also have adaptable layouts, with sliding partitions.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The towers lend themselves to retrofit, according to the architect, as they were originally built as speculative offices with highly adaptable floor plates, featuring a structural grid free of loadbearing walls, continuous ribbon windows and a freestanding lift core.<\/p>\n<p>Studio Egret West said the permitted development plans marked \u2018the first milestone in a broader vision\u2019, with possible later phases including a lunar-inspired landscape, extensions to the existing buildings and a 40-storey \u2018lunar rocket\u2019 tower.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>View of Lunar House (left) and Apollo House (right)<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/embed?pb=!4v1743183350324!6m8!1m7!1sdvFjSZgNvimVbl3Yc2FVxQ!2m2!1d51.37812521145568!2d-0.09945771632674176!3f107.99798101076341!4f9.671434037706888!5f0.7820865974627469\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The permitted development plans will see 166 flats put into 22-storey Apollo House and 419 flats into 20-storey Lunar House. The 1970 office blocks stand next to each other on Wellesley Road, straddling Sydenham Road.\u00a0 As far as it is aware, the practice believes the project will be the country\u2019s largest office-to-resi permitted development scheme &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72402,"featured_media":780725,"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":[1454,4156,1167],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Studio Egret West planning \u2018UK\u2019s largest\u2019 office-to-resi permitted development<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Studio Egret West is set to retrofit 583 homes into two Brutalist office blocks after receiving prior approval from Croydon Council\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/studio-egret-west-planning-uks-largest-office-to-resi-permitted-development\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Studio Egret West planning \u2018UK\u2019s largest\u2019 office-to-resi permitted development\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Studio Egret West is set to retrofit 583 homes into two Brutalist office blocks after receiving prior approval from Croydon Council\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/studio-egret-west-planning-uks-largest-office-to-resi-permitted-development\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Architects\u2019 Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-31T08:47:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-31T08:55:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/03\/28173244\/Space-Croydon-Final-Axo-Illustration-1-1024x682.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"682\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Will Ing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Will Ing\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/studio-egret-west-planning-uks-largest-office-to-resi-permitted-development\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/studio-egret-west-planning-uks-largest-office-to-resi-permitted-development\",\"name\":\"Studio Egret West planning \u2018UK\u2019s largest\u2019 office-to-resi permitted development\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-31T08:47:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-31T08:55:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/9d8d3cda88b1866e99d8d17d9773cc1f\"},\"description\":\"Studio Egret West is set to retrofit 583 homes into two Brutalist office blocks after receiving prior approval from Croydon Council\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/studio-egret-west-planning-uks-largest-office-to-resi-permitted-development#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/studio-egret-west-planning-uks-largest-office-to-resi-permitted-development\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/studio-egret-west-planning-uks-largest-office-to-resi-permitted-development#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Studio Egret West planning \u2018UK\u2019s largest\u2019 office-to-resi permitted development\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"The Architects\u2019 Journal\",\"description\":\"Architecture News &amp; 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