Cherry Park is Westfield Europe’s ground-breaking entry into private rental sector development within London. The site is situated at the southern end of the existing Westfield Stratford City Shopping Centre. The development will deliver over 1,200 affordable apartments for the rental market, over 3,000m2 of premium commercial space and will tie into a proposed extension of the existing shopping centre. Within a series of seven buildings (varying from 38-storeys down to seven-storeys) situated around four main courtyards and easy access to world class shopping facilities, these apartments are sure to be in high demand.
Key Technical Challenges
- DLR tunnels to the north of the site
- Constructing two buildings over the top of an existing concrete framed deck
- Constructing one building over the top of a proposed extension to the retail box
- ‘Sharing’ existing foundations with existing retail structures
- Supporting heavy landscaped loads (>1m deep soil build-up) over 16m+ spans
- Out-of-balance earth retention forces due to sloping site
Key Technical Challenges
- A grillage of steelwork transfer beams (circa 1500mm deep) was designed to span over the existing concrete deck to avoid overloading of existing structure
- For the tallest towers, an efficient outrigger system was adopted to stabilise the buildings against the overturning wind loads
- Axial strain shortening considerations were accounted for within column design to limit differential movement across the floor plates Thereby greatly limiting any column pre-setting requirements and simplifying construction
- Walking columns and transfer walls were used to achieve varying support grids between different uses, whilst reducing the need for transfer beams and the subsequent impacts on head-height
Key Technical Innovation
To maximise clear-heights under the ground floor’s heavy landscaped loads (>1m deep soil build-up) and achieve spans in excess of 16m, RBG (in conjunction with the landscape architect) developed a solution whereby a series of upstand beams would be used along with thickened slabs. The use of upstand beams effectively created ‘pockets’ where deep sections of planters could be created without compromising head-height clearances within the service yard directly underneath.
Project Metrics
Project Value:
GBP £400 million
Year Completed:
Due 2020
Building Metrics:
1,224 apartments
7 towers
Area of residential: 105,000m2
Area of commercial: 3,300m2
Project Metrics
Sectors:
Commercial Residential
Client:
Westfield Europe Ltd
Architect:
PRP Architects
Robert Bird Group Services:
Civil Engineering
Geotechnical Engineering
Structural Engineering