Sugar House Island

[edit] Sugar House Island

Sugar House Island is a 26-acre (10-hectare) area of land being developed by Vastint UK in east London. The first phase is a collection of eight historic and new office buildings targeted at the creative industries.

Vastint UK is committed to creating a thriving long-term district in east London, just south of the Olympic Park. The decision to launch with commercial space is fundamental to the team’s focus on curating a commercially-sustainable balance for this new part of London. The scheme will deliver a total of 624,000ft² (58,000m²) commercial space, which is 40% of its total area, bringing 2,500 jobs to Newham.

The first phase of Sugar House Island delivers 100,000ft² (9,000m²) of offices designed with creative businesses in mind. Called Dane’s Yard, the creative quarter fuses the industrial heritage of a Conservation Area with clean and modern designs into a sensitively-restored, contemporary hub in which small and medium-sized businesses can thrive. The eight buildings in Dane’s Yard offer attractively-priced diverse accommodation with fast connectivity, in a canal-side location which is set to be a fantastic place to live and work.

Sugar House Island is unusual among current London developments. A cosmopolitan team of architects, designers and place-makers has taken time and care to curate a place they hope everyone will enjoy. They carefully managed the balance between working, living and leisure activities to create an integrated and animated neighbourhood. The overall scheme is designed by nine different architects, a deliberate decision to introduce variation into the look and feel of the buildings as well as the spaces between them.

[edit] Dane's Yard

Dane’s Yard is the creation of three design practices. Masterplanner ARC-ML, design architect Waugh Thistleton Architects, and landscape architect Planit-IE. This team refurbished old warehouse buildings in this Conservation Area, combining them with modern extensions to make sustainable and practical working environments for today’s businesses. They also preserved the site’s layout, retaining old yards and alleyways to keep the distinctive character of this old industrial area.

Michael Lees, Partner, ARC-ML, said: “Dane’s Yard marks the first phase in the creation of Sugar House Island’s broader new neighbourhood. The irregular spaces between the buildings impart heritage. New buildings, modest and regular, are woven in around the retained buildings to form a cohesive quarter that marries the charm of the past with the expectations of the future.”

Andrew Waugh, Founding Partner, Waugh Thistleton Architects, said: “It is a fantastic challenge to build a creative quarter from the ground up and, drawing on our experience as a pivotal player in the Shoreditch renaissance, we have worked with Vastint UK to create an architecture and public domain that will enable the rapid growth of a creative community.”

The yards, too, have been carefully designed to enhance the heritage of this space. Ed Lister, Managing Director, Planit-IE, said: “ As landscape architects, we appreciate the importance of reinforcing Dane’s Yard’s unique sense of character within Sugar House Island. A series of outdoor spaces has been carefully designed, with both intimate dwelling areas for respite and larger, more open spaces for social interaction and enjoyment. We have succeeded in reusing and incorporating reclaimed materials and found site objects into the public realm, as important heritage assets that augment Dane’s Yard’s special ‘sense of place’. A minimal palette of trees and planting complement and enhance the industrial feel of the yards.”

[edit] Sugar House Island in numbers

• 26-acre (10-hectare) development bounded by water near the Olympic Park in east London.
• 624,000ft² (58,000m²) offices bringing 2,500 jobs to the area; with the first phase, Dane’s Yard, offering 100,000ft² (9,000m²) to the creative industries.
• 1,200 homes, with 40% 3-bed or more.
• 3 acres (1.2 hectares) of open space including a gardens, yards and a new riverside park.
• Restaurants, cafés and shops.
• Planning consent for a two-form entry primary school.
• A 350-bed hotel.
• 3 new bridges connecting the development into surrounding communities.
• 1.2km of river wall replaced, with a 100-year design life, as part of the development’s long-term vision.

[edit] Press coverage received

• Evening Standard article reassessing the local area.
• Evening Standard article on the new offices in Dane's Yard

[edit] About Vastint UK

At Vastint UK, we specialise in unlocking the potential of large urban sites to create truly mixed-use regeneration schemes.

We create large-scale urban developments which balance working, living and leisure activities; places designed to be characterful, connected into their history and local context, and most of all, thoughtfully designed from the inside out. With liveability key to their design, the developments have a pragmatic, holistic approach to sustainability. We maintain a long-term ownership and management interest in our developments, working with tenants and residents to curate them over time, ensuring they are successful.

Read our full profile.

Vastint UK has schemes in London (Sugar House Island), Leeds (the former Tetley Brewery site) and Cardiff. Vastint UK B.V. is administered in the UK by Vastint UK Services Ltd.

--Vastint UK 15:55, 17 May 2018 (BST)