The Design District, Greenwich – Knight Dragon with SelgasCano, 6a Architects, Adam Khan Architects, Architecture 00, HNNA, Barozzi Veiga, David Kohn Architects and Mole Architects

Who is on the project team?

SelgasCano, 6a Architects, Adam Khan Architects, Architecture 00, HNNA, Barozzi Veiga, David Kohn Architects and Mole Architects.

Describe the context of this project and its neighbourhood and people?

Design District is London’s first permanent, purpose-built hub for the creative industries. A striking and eclectic addition to the city, occupying a one-hectare plot at the heart of Greenwich Peninsula, beside the O2 and NOW Gallery.

Situated on Greenwich Peninsula, an important industrial hub located in close proximity to London’s centre, the Design District is both steeped in and carries on this vital legacy. For instance, Mole Architects’ second building, a striking and sustainable 580m2 rhomboid structure that seems to change colour as you move around it, pays subtle visual tribute to Greenwich Peninsula’s history as the home of what was once Europe’s largest gasworks.

Tell us what you did and how the project enlivened the place?  

Creativity is core to the past, present and future of London, yet too often innovative and independent businesses are pushed to the edge of the city in substandard, ill-equipped spaces. From individual designers and makers to burgeoning start-ups and established studios, the district is home to creative enterprises of all sizes and has been designed to encourage interaction, co-working and collaboration – the ingredients of a thriving creative ecosystem. The District is recognised as an affordable workspace provider by the Greater London Authority. Bureau members’ club and the Canteen food hall both place community at the heart of the District, creating space and opportunity for the many creatives and visitors on site to meet, network and collaborate.

The award-winning, creativity-stimulating architecture of the District is the result of a unique process. Through this process, each practice was given the freedom to design independently and individually, without the restrictions that a prescribed materials palette or the design codes usually associated with masterplans. Rejecting top-down homogeneity, the ‘blind’ design process results in a richer and more complex neighbourhood, with low-lying buildings sitting cheek by jowl around a series of asymmetric courtyards. This bold and playful combination of forms, colours and styles, stimulate the imagination – the ideal environment to inspire creative thinking, collaboration and bold new ideas.

Did the project make a positive social and environmental contribution? 

Opened during Covid, at a time when the office market was in flux, Design District now has over 94% of its available spaces leased: a resounding success by all benchmarks. Every aspect of Design District was designed to meet the needs of the creative sector, ensuring they are laser focused on this industry. This includes the ‘blended rent’ model, where larger organisations occupy buildings at commensurate rents that will reduce the rental burden on smaller businesses, ensuring that a wider diversity of individuals and organisations can be part of this unique creative environment. Additionally, the District was designed to be environmentally conscious and cost-efficient. While the architects were given free reign, the only significant stipulations were that each building should keep to a clear footprint to maintain the cohesiveness of the streets and public spaces, and to maximise affordability for tenants through all aspects of the design – for example, the brief required that each building had a single lift core and stair so that the floorplate dimensions would allow for natural ventilation, which reduces costs and energy consumption.