Mixed Use & Urban Regeneration - Waterman

Dock Shed

lrichards — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:56:33 +0000

Deeply rooted in the rich history of the Surrey Docks, Dock Shed is part of what was once the heart of London’s timber trade, receiving shipments from Canada and the Baltics.

The area was heavily bombed during World War II, leading to significant changes in its landscape, and the entire area was officially closed to commercial shipping in the 1970s, before being redeveloped in the 1980s with low-rise residential and retail.

Creating a new icon

Today, the area is being given a new lease of life by British Land and AustralianSuper through their 53-acre Canda Water development, aimed at transforming the area into a vibrant new town centre. As part of this, the new Dock Shed offers 180,000 sq ft of BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ workspace across six floors, along with a 5,000 sq ft retail unit and 60,000 sq ft leisure centre at basement level. With flexible floorplates ranging from 32,000 to 43,000 sq ft, the facility is designed to meet the needs of occupiers looking for headquarters.

Designed by Allies and Morrison, Dock Shed’s dramatic warehouse-inspired architecture reflects the area’s industrial heritage with its characteristic vaulted roofs mirroring the timber ‘deal’ sheds that once lined Canada Dock. Our structural engineers worked closely with the architects and design team to sympathetically blend historical elements with modern functionality.

Exemplary user experience

With a key focus on wellbeing, this WELL Gold-certified building features extensive dockside terraces on every level which are designed to host outdoor meetings and social events, whilst providing informal breakout areas and relaxation zones. Active travel is championed through the inclusion of 270 indoor cycle spaces, and extensive changing spaces with shower facilities. To further enhance user experience, fresh air circulation is available via openable windows which have been positioned throughout the building, while up to four metre floor-to-ceiling wraparound windows flood the floors with natural light.

In addition, a world class leisure centre featuring two swimming pools, multi-court sports halls, yoga and spin studios and a state-of-the-art gym sits at the basement level. Our design for this space was centred around 24m-long trusses which span over the pool and sports hall, creating large column-free spaces to accommodate an impressive range of facilities.

Unlocking design potential

Our structural specialists developed a low-carbon structure using 700 tonnes of X-Carb steel, which alone resulted in an estimated saving of 1,500 tonnes of embodied carbon. With the building designed around a highly repetitive and efficient structural grid, the repeating structural forms meant material waste was reduced and opportunities for future reuse were maximised. The geometric precision and exposed steelwork enhance the design to reflect the character of the historic dock sheds, whilst the exposed saw-tooth roof and the elegant steel trusses play a central role in both the building’s performance and its visual identity.

With the striking ground floor reception and café area sitting above the leisure centre’s sports hall, our specialists worked with the architects and fabricators to deliver a series of trusses to span the 24m clear span needed to meet Sports England design standards. These trusses were carefully dimensioned to achieve the symmetry of 45-degree angles whilst also being suitable for delivery to site as a single splice-free member. The resulting exposed steelwork design contributes to the clean, industrial aesthetic of the incredible entrance sequence designed by Conran and Partners.

Above the swimming pool, deeper trusses were detailed to be storey-high so that the top chord of the truss supports the first-floor office and the end of the bottom chord supports the gym space at ground floor level. The simplicity of the exposed structural form was achieved through rigorous attention to detail, seeing the depths of the inclined sawtooth roof beams varied to align perfectly with the primary beams supporting them.

The exposed columns on the dock elevation were detailed as an asymmetric ‘H’ to provide space for the hidden rainwater pipes, while the developed junction of the trusses ensured they enhance the clean lines of the 45-degree angles. In the office spaces, beams were detailed with a visual hierarchy, using slightly shallower secondary beams supported by deeper primary beams. This arrangement created visible lines of support that run down the full length of the office floors.

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Oval Village

lrichards — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 14:33:30 +0000

The regeneration of The Oval Gas Works and Kennington Lane, located next to the world-famous Kia Oval Cricket Ground, is creating a community of around 1,400 new one, two and three-bedroom homes with over a thousand job opportunities and apprenticeships during its construction. This project is transforming the local area, seeing a derelict site become a lively community where people can live, work, shop and play.

Working closely with Berkeley Group and GRID Architects in the pre-planning stages, and Formation Architects and Rolfe Judd Architects during the delivery stages, Waterman’s team provided multidisciplinary support for the scheme, including civil and structural engineering, building services and vertical transport designs, contamination and remediation consultancy.

Our building services experts designed the site-wide district heating network which is served by a central energy centre as part of the low energy strategy for the site in conjunction with PV cells at roof level. High efficiency heat recovery on ventilation systems lowers energy use further.

The structural design includes attenuation tanks integrated into the foundation design to control rainwater discharge rates to the local sewer network. Irrigation to the landscape areas via recycled rainwater to reduce water use. Our infrastructure and environment team prepared a desk-based ground contamination report, outline remediation strategy, air quality and dust management plan, and environmental management and monitoring plan to support the planning application.

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Portsmouth’s sustainable city district gets green light

mkoyman — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 10:29:55 +0000

Portsmouth City Council has resolved to grant planning permission for the major Portsmouth City Centre North scheme that will include up to 2,300 new homes, a public park and up to 10,000 sqm of commercial space.

The scheme will be developed in phases, with the first including the construction of two residential blocks providing a total of 550 new homes and a 7,000 sqm public park. The subsequent phases will see the construction of the remaining homes and commercial space split across ten plots. To make way for the development, a number of existing buildings will be demolished, including a former Sainsbury’s supermarket.

The development will support the revitalisation of the whole city centre, providing a vibrant new use for an area which has been in long need of regeneration, and aligns with the Council’s goals for sustainable communities, better connectivity, and greener travel. It will also connect with existing residential areas, provide substantial green open space for all, and create new walking and cycling routes between neighbourhoods.

Commenting on the plans, Lee Hunt, Nelson Ward Councillor said in a recent statement: “This is going to be a UK first, the proposal here should evolve into one of the most sustainable districts in the UK and intends to be inclusive, biodiverse and eco-friendly for its community and visitors.”

Our infrastructure and environment team supported Portsmouth City Council from the outset of the project, providing a range of services including air quality, archaeology, ecology, flood risk and drainage, geo-environmental, noise and vibration and waste management. Our building services and structures teams were also integral in working with the project architect and design team to develop optimum solutions for the masterplan.

A key ambition for the scheme was to achieve a high level of cost-effective sustainable design and biodiversity net gain, whilst minimising impact on the wider environment. The scheme targets a minimum of 4 stars under the Home Quality Mark (HQM) scheme, and BREEAM ratings of at least ‘Very Good’ for commercial spaces, with an aspiration for ‘Excellent’ as a means of assessing design performance. To aid this process, our ecology team needed to consider the impact of nutrient neutrality on the nearby Solent Special Protection Area (SPA). They worked with the design team, including the landscape architects and our own drainage specialists, to achieve up to 45% biodiversity net gain and minimise impact on the SPA.

Celebrating the planning permission, Waterman’s Regional Director, Richard Stockwell said: “I’m delighted to see this forward-thinking scheme secure planning permission. Portsmouth City Centre North will set a new precedent for sustainability, seeing climate resilience and biodiversity measures embedded from the outset.”

Want to find out more about how we’re helping shape the future of urban environments? Click here to head to our Mixed Use and Urban Regeneration page.

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Waterman scoops Best Net Zero Project at ACE Awards

admin — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 15:10:27 +0000

We are delighted that our circular economy-focused commercial scheme, Edenica, won ‘Best Net Zero Project’ at the Consultancy and Engineering Awards held on 19 January at London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square.

The Association for Consultancy and Engineering’s (ACE’s) Consultancy and Engineering Awards recognise outstanding achievement, celebrating the best that the engineering and consultancy sector has to offer, rewarding the work of both ACE members and non-member organisations.

BauMont Real Estate Capital’s and YardNine’s 94,000 sq ft Edenica office development at 100 Fetter Lane is harnessing the latest design techniques to optimise operational energy efficiency and slash embodied carbon, whilst also offering class-leading user experience. As part of the development’s unique approach to cutting whole-life carbon and creating a robust platform for material circularity, Waterman’s Sustainability team is piloting the use of Materials Passports on the project.

Materials Passports are digital data sets which describe characteristics of materials and components in products and systems, giving them value for present use, recovery and future reuse. Designed by Fletcher Priest Architects, Edenica is the first scheme within the City of London to utilise Materials Passports and is designed to be a storage bank where materials are held for future reuse.

Impressed with the pioneering application of Waterman’s Materials Passports on the scheme, the award judges celebrated the initiative’s potential to kick-start material circularity throughout the built environment.

Commenting on the award win, Waterman’s Managing Director for Building Services (South), Mark Terndrup, said: “I’m thrilled to see Edenica win this prestigious award. Thanks to the full support of BauMont Real Estate Capital and YardNine, we adopted our Materials Passports strategy at Edenica to build-in material circularity from the outset. I believe this fundamental shift in approach to commercial building design will play a key role in delivering a Net Zero built environment.”

Waterman’s Sustainability Associate, Anastasia Stella, led the development of Materials Passports at Edenica. Celebrating the award win, she said: “Edenica represents a blueprint for how sustainability principles can be fully embedded into successful commercial building designs. I’m delighted to see the potential of our Materials Passports highlighted by the ACE, demonstrating the progress our industry is making towards a greener future.”

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