Hoola Building

Location Royal Victoria Docks, London
Client HUB Group
Content 360 Residential Units
Status Built

Awards
2017 Property Award, Shortlist

Hoola is an exciting scheme which will bring life and activity into a piece of land which was previously derelict. This development is leading the way both in its innovative design and green credentials. The regeneration of the historic Royal Docks is coming and this is the start of the area’s new era as a business and residential heart for London.

Sir Robin Wales, formerly Mayor of Newham

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The elegant pair of 23 and 24-storey towers sit at the gateway to the Excel Exhibition Centre, demonstrating an efficient plan that maximises views to the southeast and west. The major challenge of the regeneration scheme was the brownfield site; an amorphous shaped island and the product of highway engineering in the 1960s. CZWG’s response to this severance was to raise the ground floor level, shifting the ‘front door’ of the scheme from the lower to the upper Tidal Basin Road thereby helping to create a new street frontage on an otherwise inaccessible piece of infrastructure. The buildings sit on a landscaped hill which covers the single level basement accommodating parking, refuse and plant spaces. The Hoola scheme is born of form and a sense of movement that has long been present at this location. Its shape and orientation have been carefully considered to optimise the aspect and coordination of the towers while minimising overlooking between apartments.

The gentle curvature of the balconies provides a ripple effect linking the buildings with the surrounding waters whilst amplifying the precision-finished precast concrete soffits of the balconies. Varying and staggered balcony widths ensure every apartment benefits from usable but not immediately overshadowed outdoor space. The building fabric thermal performance and an innovative energy sharing agreement using ‘excess’ heat from the Excel Exhibition Centre CHP plant, has resulted in one of the most sustainable housing developments in the capital, achieving a carbon reduction of nearly 57% against the 2010 Building Regulations.

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