New Tower Proposed For Blackwall

Another residential tower has been proposed in Blackwall in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets near New Providence Wharf.

The tower is part of a three block scheme for the Alberta House site that sits to the immediate east of New Providence Wharf and on the south side of Blackwall Way. It's being developed by the Swan Housing Group, a company who specialise in affordable housing who see the site as perfect for providing cheap, high density housing.

The architects of the scheme, BLDA, have come up with a 24 floor tall tower reaching a roof height of 73.72 metres although the structure continues past this in the form of a façade overrun that with a lipstick like crown, pushes the height up to 82 metres and only partially encloses the exposed central core.

Unlike its neighbours however it does not curve, instead the floorplan is traditionally blocky. Rectangular floorplates are much more efficient than curving ones helping add to one of the ironies about London's housing stock - affordable apartments are usually bigger than the more expensive private ones.

The central tenet to the scheme was for the architect to design a landmark tower that would act as a beacon for this development that is environmentally sustainable. A wide mixture of housing is to be provided within ranging from 1 bedroom apartments to 5 bedroom maisonettes with 54% of the total being affordable.

The tower will be clad largely in monochromatic shades, dark grey, black and white, as these lend more successfully to brighter colouring that will patchwork the scheme through the use of coloured glass in the balconies.

The scheme comes hot on the heels of the plans by Ballymore to add another tower to their development that's been designed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill. With the distinctive roof-line of the Ontario Tower now catching on, sloped crowns such as the one Alberta House has been designed with could well become the de facto look in this part of London.