Greenwich Housing & Community Building

DSDHA's housing and community building are beacons for the regeneration of the Greenwich Peninsula. The mixed-use scheme, with 139 new homes, builds on the area's character, consolidating the identity of this rapidly changing area whilst celebrating its industrial past.

Creating a sense of place

By challenging the rigid grid of the original masterplan, we redrew the boundaries for our two plots and combined them to establish a more harmonious hierarchy of streets and a new public park, Reminder Gardens. This spatial strategy, combined with a careful articulation of the heights and massing, maximises daylight while reducing overshadowing and overlooking. These shifts have carved out new views to and from the river and more legible routes connecting local amenities.

A contemporary village hall

The Neighbourhood Building – ‘The Aperture' – is envisaged as a contemporary village hall and comprises a retail unit, café and residents’ lobby on the ground floor, with a crèche, prayer space, estate management and a gym above, all accessible from the shared lobby, and with a dramatic staircase that connects the activities.

The building’s wedge-shaped form rises five storeys, with prominent and permeable street frontage to all three sides, whilst bespoke glazed façades emphasise its open and welcoming nature. An outer screen of anodised aluminium fins and perforated metal panels wrap around each elevation, both evoking the industrial works that once stood on the site and creating a range of transparencies in response to the activities within whilst opening up views towards the Peninsula.

A garden at the heart of the residences

'The Fulmar' provides a tenure-blind mix of affordable and private apartments (60 private, 60 social rent and 19 intermediate) over ten storeys, with a retail unit on the ground floor and residents' rooftop pavilion. It forms three distinct buildings with independent entrances all set around a raised landscaped garden: an important shared space for play and social interaction which overlooks the surrounding streets.