Amazing £400m plans for Belfast riverside designed with our weather in mind

Award-winning Scandinavian architects Henning Larsen hope to keep us outdoors for longer

A Scandinavian architect's masterplan for the east bank of the River Lagan aims to make the outside space comfortably usable for over six months a year.

Henning Larsen Architects have designed the waterfront development on the site of the former Sirocco Works with our weather very much in mind. It is based on Copenhagen Harbour where pedestrian and cylce friendly zones are used year all year round, despite the freezing weather.

As well as placing the buildings so they shelter the waterfront from the wind, they have also done some work to reduce wind speed in the area. This means outdoor areas could remain comfortably in use for 25 weeks of the year – in contrast to the nine weeks the weather now permits.

A Scandinavian architect's masterplan for the east bank of the River Lagan aims to make the outside space comfortably usable for over six months a year.

Henning Larsen Architects have designed the waterfront development on the site of the former Sirocco Works with our weather very much in mind. It is based on Copenhagen Harbour where pedestrian and cylce friendly zones are used year all year round, despite the freezing weather.

As well as placing the buildings so they shelter the waterfront from the wind, they have also done some work to reduce wind speed in the area. This means outdoor areas could remain comfortably in use for 25 weeks of the year – in contrast to the nine weeks the weather now permits.

There are plans for a new pedestrian and cycle bridge to link the banks of the River Lagan, as well as additional leisure and shopping facilities, the creation of 750 new homes, a hotel and offices.

It is estimated that the 6.5-hectare Belfast Waterside will cost around £400m. And a significant step forward has been made with the submission of a detailed planning application for a 250,000 sq ft Grade A office development by Vanguard Real Estate.

When complete, the initial £50m investment will deliver the first major employment activity on the Belfast city centre site in more than 20 years.

The planning application has been submitted by Vanguard Real Estate - the development arm behind Swinford (Sirocco) Ltd - as the first phase of a transformational masterplan designed by the award-winning Danish architects Henning Larsen.

Jim Osborne, Director, said: "Following consultation with Belfast City Council planners and the local community we are pleased to begin the process of major transformation at Belfast Waterside, creating a new living, leisure and commercial quarter within the city centre.

"We are seeking to set a new benchmark for office space suitable for premium corporate occupiers. We engaged with several prominent office requirements at the earliest opportunity as part of our innovative approach to providing frictionless solutions for tenants and talks are progressing well."

 The Grade A office proposals have been submitted as Phase 1 of wider plans to redevelop the largest brownfield city centre site into a riverfront destination.

The office accommodation building will be the first step in creating modern workspace for 11.5% of the 46,000 new jobs that Belfast City Council is seeking to create by 2035.

Jim Osborne added: "This office application is our first step in realising our ambition. By 2020 there will be a thriving Business and Creative Quarter, as Belfast Waterside emerges as a highly successful mixed-use regeneration scheme, including offices, a hotel, serviced apartments, residential units for sale and rent, affordable, social housing and significant retail and leisure space.

"The residential and co-working elements of the scheme will be brought forward in the coming months, together with proposals for a new pedestrian and cycle bridge.

"Once completed, the £400 million investment will reconnect this important city centre site to the rest of the city, and provide 1.7 million sq ft of mixed use development.

"A pre-application notification for residential development and co-working space – a new concept for Belfast - will soon be submitted to Belfast City Council as part of our wider plans to develop the rest of the Waterside site.

"We are proud to be part of the Belfast delegation attending MIPIM next month to showcase the project, Belfast and its many attributes, including its talented and highly-skilled workforce."

It is hoped that work on the project might begin this summer and be completed by 2022.

Jacob Kurek, a partner at Henning Larsen Architects told Dezeen.com the firm "saw a truly special opportunity in this ambitious project to bring a Nordic understanding of outdoor living to Belfast".

"From Copenhagen, we know that harbours have an enormous potential to activate public life in a city. We are going to create the framework for people to feel part of a shared public life by [the] River Lagan making it attractive to stay in the city," he continued.

"[The] River Lagan will no longer create a barrier in Belfast but is going to connect it instead.

"Analysing the thermal microclimate we applied an effective scale-gradient strategy to the project. By placing the tallest office buildings along the north, facing the railway, we will create a noise blocking acoustic barrier," he explained.

"The lower buildings facing south keep the riverfront pedestrian friendly and human-scaled. At the same time, this strategy allows us to ensure river views and good daylight conditions from all buildings."

Source:Belfastlive