Devon's Road, Bow

Proposals for a mixed-use community regeneration scheme at Bow Enterprise Park were developed by ORMS Architects for developer Glebe Holdings and the Workspace Group in early 2008. The site in Devons Road, Bow contained 5,500sqm of light industrial space and with a shortage of housing, retail and office space in the area, ORMS’s proposals transform the area, with plans for over 760 apartments, offices and retail space. Workspace Group are London’s leading provider of small and medium workspaces.

Peabody purchased the site in 2011 and shortly after appointed Galliford Try to build out Phase 1 of the development. Manhire Associates worked closely with CJCT Architects to develop designs for 6 buildings up to 14 storeys over a single level basement directly adjacent to the Docklands Light Railway. 

The design team progressed a range of options addressing a number of challenging aspects of the development. The optimization of the basement design was a significant achievement and Manhire Associates worked closely with CJCT to develop basement proposals that took account of the future phases but also the natural topography together with constraints imposed by the adjacent highway, drainage outfalls and an existing vent shaft to a large diameter Thames Water Sewer. 

The ground water table was both high and variable and working closely with CJCT, Manhire Associates were able to raise the basement level above the ground water table which also realized savings in excavation retention with just 20m of sheet piling required to retain the car-park ramp wall construction against the neighbouring Party Wall. Initial advice from the Geotechnical Consultant indicated that secant walls might be required to exclude ground water and also to retain the excavation against the DLR boundary.

Manhire Associates recommended that a Preliminary Pile Test be undertaken ahead of the main piling contract to optimize the pile design and this allowed a ‘Factor of Safety’ of 2.0 pile design to be adopted across the development. Further savings were realized with further testing of the underlying ‘River Terrace’ sands and gravels which indicated that the material required no further preparation to be able to support piling rig loading. 

Phase 1 was completed in late 2015.