CABE backs Battersea Power Station design

The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment said it is supporting both the outline planning and listed building applications that have been submitted to Wandsworth council.

The plans put forward by developer Treasury Holdings include 3,700 homes as well as retail space, restaurants, a hotel, and community and leisure facilities.

Architect Rafael Vinoly was brought in to work on the scheme after initial plans were deemed unsuitable.

CABE said its design review panel feels ‘an impressive amount has been achieved within the constraints of the building’ and the London-landmark has been given ‘a strong new setting, provided by a simple new riverside park and the oval form of landscape and buildings to the south’.

The body has reviewed designs for the power station six times, which it admitted is unusual, but it says the assessments have resulted in improvements at each stage.

It added that there are still ‘areas to be resolved’ such as how light will penetrate to apartments at lower levels of the development.