Sugar House Island, Newham, London – Vastint UK with Planit IE

Sugar House Island is a new Stratford neighbourhood which supplies 1,200 homes, 624,000sqft of office space, a hotel, primary school, retail, and public space which will all be completed in 2017. It will foster a community to live, work and play and provide a better quality of life.

Where is the project located?
Sugar House Lane, Sugar House Island, Stratford, East London, E15 2QS
 
Who is the developer/client of the project?
Vastint UK

Sugar House Island is a new Stratford neighbourhood, providing 1,200 homes, 624,000sqft of office space, a hotel, primary school, retail, and public space once complete in 2027. The vision assembles a growing community of 6,000 people to live, work and forge a better quality of life amongst east London’s waterways. 

The Island sits at the southern end of Stratford High Street, rubbing shoulders with neighbouring district Bow. It’s a short walk from the Olympic Park, Hackney Wick and other key areas of east London regeneration. Located within the London Legacy Development Corporation’s wider remit, the site became part of its vision to create high-quality mixed-use development from post-industrial land.

Throughout history, watercourses bounding the site have shaped the flour, gin, soap, and printing industries operating there. Inspiration was drawn from the area’s heritage, through architectural design, to the naming of streets and buildings. The site includes two conservation areas relating to the island’s unique heritage, alongside several refurbished historic buildings, yards, and chimneys ‘of note’.

Installation of 1 km of river wall and years of remediation brought the site to a useable state.

The first two residential phases, primary school, Dane’s Yard creative quarter (containing architectural publisher Phaidon) and Cooperage Yard (a mix of eight unique heritage and new buildings), have been completed. The buildings follow historic footprints, with old yards and riverside views retained. Seven public streets, residential mews and courtyards, a riverside garden and play area provide visitors, residents, and tenants with places to explore, relax and dwell.
 
How are you seeking to foster community, welcome visitors and attract tenants. How are you responding to changing demographics, behaviours, market context, policy, transport habits and the climate crisis since winning planning?

Provision of new facilities for the boater community, located adjacent to Three Mills Park, was an early initiative. The primary school was completed in the first phase of development, alongside establishment of Talent House in a refurbished warehouse; offering dance and music sessions to the community as part of its tenancy agreement. 

A café and bar/restaurant provide the ideal venue for residents and tenants’ events hosted by the on-site welcome team. Dales Yard features a weekly pop up by Food Disco, and an independent convenience store recently opened. With a nod to the site’s printing and ink heritage, arts publisher Phaidon relocated its UK headquarters to Danes Yard, alongside Vastint’s UK headquarters in the refurbished Print House.

Residents have been living on the Island for over a year, through a mixture of affordable rent and Private Rental Schemes; the latter a change from sale in response to changing market demands. The nature of the Private Rental Scheme is testament to Vastint’s long-term commitment; ensuring design and material quality of the homes is high and continues to serve residents.

Sugar House Island’s sustainable travel vision includes separate plans for business, school and residential uses alongside active monitoring; all aimed at changing travel behaviour. The site is being built to facilitate future bus routes, with new stops along two spine roads that accommodate most of the vehicular movement. Limited above-ground parking creates a pedestrian priority streets with great cycle links. Where appropriate, existing warehouses, chimneys and print houses are retained and retrofitted.
 
What is your sustainability strategy and how are you mitigating carbon use and construction pollution? Please provide any evidence or data. 

Existing yards, buildings and chimneys were assessed for reuse at the project outset, embedding the new masterplan within the site’s heritage and weaving the new urban layout into existing character. Historic buildings sit around Dane’s and Cooperage Yards, adapted to flexibly accommodate new uses. Existing elements identified in the Conservation Area Strategy, such as chimneys and the ‘Wall of Note’ have been carefully disassembled, cleaned and rebuilt brick by brick. 

The project showcases multiple modern construction methods throughout the site, including cross laminated timber and prefabricated buildings. A variety of traditional and large timber structural methods were used within phase 1, to both refurbish existing historic buildings and create new structures to sit alongside them – including pure cross laminated timber construction, and steel hybrid structures. Cross laminated timber buildings have excellent thermal efficiency and low running costs, with heating supplied through Sugar House Island’s district heat network.

Most buildings and site-wide infrastructure have been designed and modelled in 3D to support the coordination of building, structural and civil engineering elements; significantly reducing time, cost and material waste during the construction phase.

The project has adopted a flexible design approach, to be implemented in phases that align with the growth of the development. Connection to the Olympic Park Energy Centre acts to futureproof the site. Together, the Sugar House Island District Heating Network, and the Olympic Park Energy centre can heat buildings and homes on the Island, helping to lower both costs and carbon emissions.
 
Describe the social impact of the project: How is this place contributing to the economic, environmental and social wellbeing of its citizens? Please provide any evidence or data. 

The Sugar House Island redevelopment brings a near-derelict, post-industrial site back into use, supporting a new creative business and residential neighbourhood. 

Completed early phases have worked hard to create sense of place and accommodate residents, tenants, and visitors’ needs, with introduction of the market, café, restaurant, and associated programme of social events and initiatives.

Following years of careful site-remediation, positive environmental impact is evident in the greening of streets, residential courtyards and publicly accessible yards with views over the water. The landscape has been designed to be lush and green, changing through the seasons, whilst being low maintenance.

372 homes were created within the first two phases, and the initial phase is fully let. A survey conducted to better understand residents’ perceptions found: 98.5% would recommend living on the Island; 95.45% were satisfied with the quality of their home; and 93.9% feel safe living on the Island.

Future phases aim to further increase citizens’ wellbeing through creation of two additional publicly accessible spaces with community offers; Chimney Walk and The Hub. The Riverside Park will provide respite and connection to the waterside habitat and form a floodable landscape that helps futureproof the site.

School 360 and Talent House by East London Dance Company are in their infancy, but are connecting to the community through volunteer opportunities and open access performance programmes. The project also ties into ‘The Line’, London’s public arts programme of Wellbeing Walks; aiming to improve fitness and wellbeing, whilst exploring art, wildlife and heritage along its route.