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Top architecture award to London project
One of the world's top awards for architecture and town planning has been won by the designers of Thamesmead, a London development to provide homes, shopping and recreational facilities for 60,000 people on the south side of the River Thames.
The project, headed by Mr. Hubert Bennett, architect of the Greater London Council, was chosen from 31 national schemes submitted to the adjudicating committee of the Union Internationale des Architectes in Paris for the Sir Patrick Aber- crombie Award.
The winning scheme is described as 'a plan whose practical conception shows a clear under- standing and knowledge of the capacities of planner and architect, and an indication of harmonious inte- gration of human values, aesthetic expression and modern techniques is to be found in this project.'
The project entails a 15-year construction pro- gramme in which 1,300 acres of marshes will be reclaimed to provide 17,000 new homes, many new schools, employment, leisure and free movement by foot, cycle, car and public transport. All living accommodation will be at first floor level and pedestrian ways will be segregated from traffic by continuous high-level walkways in the main centre and local centres.
£2.9 million school project
A £2.9 million contract has been awarded by Greater London Council and Inner London Educa- tion Authority to Gilbert-Ash (Southern) Ltd., member of the Bovis Group, for the construction of the new Brixton School of Building and Vaux- hall College of Further Education.
The site covers 41⁄2 acres and the new buildings will be in three main elements, the professional block, Vauxhall College of Further Education block and the craft block. All three will be linked together.
There will also be parking space around the perimeter of the site. All the buildings will be borne on bored piles, ranging from 81.28 cm (2ft. 6in.) to 121 cm (4ft.) dia., with a system of ground beams tying them together.
The main buildings will be in various forms of construction. The craft block will be a four-storey, steel-framed building with floors of hollow, precast concrete planks covered with a screed.
Thamesmead, a London project that won the top architecture award
Far East BUILDER, August 1969
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