BUILDING .Towering ambition: Battersea's glass mountain

Montevetro is a building for ourtimes, but it respects the setting,not by deference but by sensitivityto the context. In fact, the churchis given a vastly better setting andforms a key element in the wholeconcept. New and better publicspace is a gain which we need towrite into the planning system ­at Montevetro there is a newpublic garden on the banks of theThames, linked to an extendedriverside walk. This is the spiritwhich produced the bestdevelopments of the past, likeRegent's Park. There is a greatopportunity for enlighteneddevelopers to take up the torchand add to the public domain.(Aerial phota: Charley Hondford.)

functionally obsolete buifdingswhich cast a blight on the riverand the surrounding area. Thenew development has opened upaccess to the river for everyone,not just for those who will live inou' building. It adds to the publicdomain - the days whendevelopers could ignore the publictealm ate lang gone, thankfully.Unlike some earlier developments,Montevetro is the right scale forthe Thames, which is a big river.Too many opportunities have beenlost in London. and elsewhere,because we are afraid to learnfrom the past. When Wren rebuiltSt Paul's, he didn't replicate theaId cathedral but designedsomething of its own day.

London has been described as'two cities divided by a river', butthe Thames is or can become thegreat unifying element that bindsthe whole together, writesRichard Rogers. Unfortunately,much of the river is virtually invisi.ble even to those who live close toit - shut off by decaying industryand dereliction and frustratinglyinaccessible. The Montevetro sitetypified the problem - it wasoccupied by undistinguished and

Parmership with co-architects HurleyRobertson & Associates, the building isaligned north-south, diagonally acrossthe site, allowing for a new public parkoverlooking the river to Chelsea. Views ofthe church have also been opened up andthe river walk has been extended throughthe site to give a continuous route [romWandswonh to Ballersea bridges.

British Land commissioned Rogers

Momevetro stands on the banks of theThames in Battersea on a site formerlyoccupied by the Hovis flour mill. At itssouth-west corner stands the eighteenthcemury grade-) listed St Mary's Church,its elegant facade addressing the liver. Tothe south are the towers of the high-riseSomerset estate and to the east a low-riseintenvar cOltage estate.

Designed by architects Richard Rogers

London's first majorhousing development

of the millenniumbreaks new ground for

riverside projects.Photos: Peter Durant.

Above/right The fully glazedwest elevation allows maximumviews over the river.Site plan The north·southalignment of the building dividesthe site diagonally, with a newpublic park and riverside walk.formed on the west. On the eastside is the leisure bUilding olongBattersea Church Road and asingJe4 storey car park with rooftoptennis court. An access roadproyides vehicle drop.off points oteach of the four /1ft lowers,Opposite PIon at 7th floor withtypical flat arrangements; glazedlift shafts animate the terracotto·clad entrance facade.

- --~------

: ~,,,,,~­,

Below The west elevation, asseen by the architects and as inter­preted by the estate agents.Apartments range in size from theone-bedroom 573 square foot(53.2 square metre) flat on theground floor of the south end at£295,000 to the 3, 189 squarefoot (296 square metre) three·bedroom penthouse (the secondhighest) at £3.75m.103 apartments are

five connected blocks,

Construction as contractor. HurleyRobertson & Associates were appoin ted asco-architect and design team leader forthe realisation phase from ovember1996 onwards, contributing to the designdevelopment, construction planning andproduction of co-ordinated constructioninformation.

Montevetro'sorganised into

~ ,- ~~ ~

I iI, ,, .....""'",, I, ;=,,,

I,,,• , I •'-r-- -- -- -- -,- ----- --- ",--- --- -" --r

Typical flat plans Living-rooms,kitchens and balconies arepositioned on the west side, over­looking the river; with bedroomson the east and bothroom podsin between. The apartmentsshown are in block D level three,with three and two bedrooms(and bathrooms) respectively. Thedouble lifts are pulled out toprovide shared /ift lobbies and toprovide articulation to the east fa­cade, The inner core, comprisingescape stair; ducts, flues and risersetc, is positioned (unusually forRogers) within the depths of theplan.Interiors Under the sloping roofare eight double-height penthous­es, each with a fiving-room andkitchen on the upper level andbedrooms below.

..-...- -­,.,- _. .._...-. _. _..._.._.

early in 1994 to study the redevelopmentof the Hovis flour mill site and a planningapplication was lodged in June 1994; fol­lowing a planning enquiry, permissionwas granted in December 1995. InNovember 1996 the site was purchased byTaylor Woodrow Capital Developmentswho commissioned the Rogers office todevelop the design. Procurement was bydesign and build with Taylor Woodrow----

Penthouse cladding Althoughintegrated into the overall deSign,the penthouses have a differentsystem of fully glazed cladding(above), with a special set ofextruded profiles and siliconebonded glazing to achieveslender sight lines. The 9m highglazing is supported fromdedicated internal columns andbracketry, including a slopinggloss projection, whife wide pivotdoors give residents direct accessto the terraces.

o

top vents are operated eithermechanically by integrated driveswithin the frames, or electricallyfrom remote switches. Areas ofplain cladding are formed with(fat aluminium sheet mounted asrornscreen within compatiblemodular ponels. The fully glazedlift shafts contain port·glozed liftcars. Each of the eight shafts hasan internal support structure on athree-floor verticaf modUle, withcantilevered steelwork and three­storey high sections of glazing.

wooCJ

8CJ

8CJooc:Jn

~H HI-

Switzerland and a duplicateassembly facility in the UK. Wherepossible ponels were lifted directlyfrom truck to building. The skincomprises glass, terracotta andaluminium panels structured with·in a framework of prefabricatedstorey-high panels. Each floor lev­el is expressed with a recessedband which integrates oJ! servicepenetrations for vents, !fues andbalcony or canopy ottachmentbrackets. On the west elevation(above left) high.performancedouble-glazed units are bondedonto integrated subframes andmechanically restrained onto themain panel frames. The storey­high panels measure 3050mm by3600mm, forming the maincladding module. The balconieson this elevation, manufacturedand installed by Barker Shepley,are self·contained structures,bracketed and suspended fromthe frame using stainless steel ca­bles and couplings, with a yellowtubular frame and timber deck.The east elevation (above right)comprises full-height rainscreenterracotta cladding with integrat­ed windows. Within a similarframing system and a horizontalgrid subdivision module of900mm, are extruded andsandblasted natural terracottapanels, fixed with a stainless steelclip system incorporating anti­vibration mounts. Modular fixedand opening lights are of 900mmand 7BOOmm (above centre). The

1 I 1

Cladding Montevetro has beendesigned as a clear expression ofits context, function, site andorientation, writes Chris Elsnerof Hurley Robertson. RichardRogers Partnership and HurleyRobertson & Associates workedclosely with cladding consultontHartmut Loeffler during design de­velopment, establishing theprincipal requirements ofappearance and technicalperformance. The design wasdeveloped further once thecontractor had been selectedthrough a two·stage tenderprocess. Felix UK was selected andbecame intimately involved in allaspects of the detailed work.Technical design workshops wererun in both London and Lausanneat the Felix SA offices and plant,where the detailed design andmanufacture took place. These in­cfuded the important issues ofconstruction methods andsequencing. John Millington ofTaylor Woodrow Construction waspivotal in establishing anintegrated approach tosequencing, with concrete framecompletion before delivery ofbothroom pods and thepositioning of these in thebuilding just before cladding pan·ef were delivered and erected andthe envelope sealed. Pre­production cladding samples weremode by Felix and tested at TELGreenford. Work at site beganwith deliveries of panels from

U11 1--

stepping up from four storeys at the southto 20 storeys at the north. AlIli\~ng-roomsand kitchens are on the west side, withfully-glazed walls and balconies overlook­ing the river, while bedrooms are 9n theeast, behind pan-glazed part-terrracona­clad skin. Mechanical cooling to Ii~ng­

rooms and bedrooms is pro~ded byindi~dually controlled and meteredfan-eoil units concealed within the wallsand wardrobes. The bathroom pods, fin­ished in full-height coloured glass walls,were prefabricated in Denmark. Coloursinclude the familar Rogers palette ofmetallic grey with yellow highlights forthe balcony strucutres and 'Rogers blue'for the carpets in the lift lobbies.

The enO"ance to the site is from theeast, adjacent to the seclllity office, whichalso gives access to the residents' car park­ing and the leisure cenu'e. Entrances tothe building are located at the base of thefour glazed lift towers on the east side.Apartments are accessed directly from ti,ezinc-elad lift lobbies, thus avoiding inter­nal corridors.

The development comprises mainlytwo-bedroom flats but also one- and three-

left/below The contrasting westand east elevations arise from thedecision to make all apartmentsdouble aspect, with the living·rooms facing west and accessand bedrooms on the east.Above The north elevation,reaching to 20 storeys, is crownedby a 2,500 square foat penthouse.

bedroom flats and ten duplex penthous­es, with sizes ranging from 570 to 3,100square feet. The site also includes a two­storey leisure centre/security buildingand 170 parking spaces in a single floor ofunderground parking and a single-storeysO"ucture located behind the leisure cen­O"e. The duplex pentllOuses occupy thespace beneath the sloping roof, with themain living area and kitchen on the upperlevel and bedrooms and bathroomsbelow, linked by a light steel staircase.

The concrete frame is clad in a Felixprefabricated curtain wall - glass on thewest side, terracotta and glass on ti,e east- with sloping roofs formed from steppedzinc. The lift shafts combine steel-support­ed glass cladding with aluminium-faced

Below 1994 scheme (ph: Eamann O'Mahany) andas later depicted by Hayes Davidson for the developer.

concrete which acts as a fire shield.Prefabricated balconies on the west ele­

vation comprise sO"uctural steelwork sus­pended from each floor slab and infilledwith tannelised softwood decking. Thebalusu"des are consO"ucted of clear glass,while privacy screens are made from full­height etched glass.

The two-storey leisure centre buildingscreens ti,e garden on ti,e east side fromthe road. It is also clad in a variant of ti,ethe glass and terracotta curtain wall usedfor the main building, with an aluminiumstanding seam roof. As well as containinga gyln, sauna etc, the leisure centre givesaccess to the open-air tennis coun locatedabove the parking structure.

Project teamArchitect: Richard Rogers Partnership; co-lIrchitecl: Hurley Robertson& A»ociale5; HRA current team: John Hurley, Chri5 Eisner, DerekDavis, Andrew Fisher, Fems Moffal, Simon Parkes, Ulrlke Steven,VICtoria Whenray; structural engineer. Waterman Partrlership; ser­vices engineer: DSSR; qs: \NT Partrlership; landscape: Townshendlandscape Architects; contractor: Taylor Woodrow Construction;client/contract administrator: Taylor Woodrow CapitalDevelopments.

SelKted subcontractors and suppliersConcrele frame: Buildstone; steelwork: Rowen; cladding: FeliJc UK;terracotta: G&:F Industrle1; glass: Glaverbel, St Gobaln; lift shaft:Eckelt; roofing: Varia; elCtE'rnal balconlt!'s: Barker Shepley; timberdt'(k: HlD; glass balunrades: Hanron; bathroom pods: EI8adekablner; sanitaryware: Trent,. Armitage Shanks, Kaldewel; taps:GrOhe, Vola; to'o'>'eI rails: Runtalrad; radiators: Hudevad; lifts:Schindler; ironmongery: Allgood; Manet Internal glass fixings:Carma; light switches: Hamilton Utestat; raised Iloot: Durabella;blinds: levoluK; plaster/board: lafarge, BrltJsh Gypsum; in situ bath­room fit-out: Chelsea Artisans; zinc panelling: BE'nchmat1l; mt!'tlIl­work: UttJehampton Welding; leisure building rool: Asphaltic, Corus;leisure building cladding: Alusulsse; reception fumiture: ScottHoward; external precast paving/stairs: Mailing, Marshalls.