Council Approves Challenging Wandle Housing Scheme

ECD are pleased to announce that the scheme at Solomon’s Passage received planning permission from Southwark Borough Council for both the refurbishment and new build proposals.

The 85-unit residential development, owned by Wandle Housing Association and known as Solomon’s Passage, is 4 multi-storey timber framed blocks with basement car parking at Peckham Rye, London was completed in 2012. Solomon’s Passage has had a series of significant issues from the time of its original construction. Wandle’s brief was to provide a solution or series of measures to overcome major building defects that had arisen over the 5 years since completion and had been identified by a team of experts. The problems include fire stopping, water penetration with damage to the structural timber frame and M&E service failures. These issues interact with one another, adding a degree of complexity in understanding the cause and specifying the correct remedy.

ECD are part of a large multi-disciplinary team providing comprehensive services on both the new build and refurbishment projects. Our team was initially appointed to undertake an options appraisal to assist Wandle in determining if the buildings could be saved or if the redevelopment of the whole site would be more appropriate given the serious building issues involved. The initial intention was to refurbish all blocks, however, two blocks totalling 48 units were deemed unfeasible to refurbish and ECD therefore provided architectural design services for the new building design in addition to refurbishment proposals for the remaining blocks. Our current proposal is to refurbish two blocks and to demolish the other two blocks and rebuild in one new building.

The existing buildings were designed before the current version of the London Plan and energy targets had also changed since completion. This meant that any new proposal that replaced the existing units would have increased floor to ceiling heights and larger units to comply with the London Plan. This has impacted on the available space to reprovide homes on Solomon’s Passage when set against the other constraints such as sunlight and daylight to surrounding neighbours. Wandle and ECD will be targeting Passivhaus and engaging in a BIM level 2 process to raise the quality of sustainability, construction and asset information.

A series of consultation events were held with Solomon’s Passage residents, stakeholders and with Southwark Council planners prior to planning submission and comments from these have been incorporated into the design.  Our approach, with Wandle, is to restore the trust of the community at Solomon’s Passage by building quality homes that residents can enjoy, relax and play in.