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In 1999 work began on the Greenwich
Millennium Village (GMV), which is located on
the peninsula in North Greenwich next to the dome.
The GMV will have 1377 dwellings ranging from
house's, apartments to live & work units when
completed. The scheme was hailed by the Government
as a 'blueprint for future sustainable developments',
and is a combination of volume house builders
and one off designers, that creates a mixed tenure
development. Ralph Erskine is the master planner
of the scheme and the designer of the high-rise
apartments that are located to the north of the
site. It is important to understand who Erskine
was designing for in order to comment on the building.
He is building not just architecturally but also
socially combining public and private residents
in 21st Century environment.
Erskine's apartments are ten
to twelve stories high and located to the North
of the site to protect the rest of the low rise
development from high winds that come off of the
River Thames. To help bring Erskine's apartments
back into scale with the rest of the development
sun decks, terraces and balconies have been added
to all apartments, protruding from many different
areas that help lose the flat facade of the blocks.
This make the building very textured and less
intrusive.
Erskine uses hard-wearing traditional
materials to create a friendly humane environment
in new and exciting ways. The steel frame is left
visible and is part of the overall design concept.
The balconies, sun decks and terraces are made
up of glass, timber and steel. Erskine is an advocator
of glass and in places it is floor to ceiling
allowing as much natural light in as possible.
Exterior walls are clad with a mixture of terracotta,
tiles, cedar and render, the roofs are covered
with aluminium and the windows are timber.
All apartments differ in shape
and size. The kitchen, living and dining area
are, more often than not, in the same room and
open plan. There is a lot of cupboard space in
both apartments and duplex apartments. The one-bed
apartments have the four functions of a home divided,
eating, sleeping, working, relaxing, into four
separate rooms. Living areas have double high
spaces with a balcony.
The dwellings are built using
ground breaking methods which dramatically cut
the usual construction time, cost and waste. GMV
also addresses the issue of waste as one of its
selling points. The GMV is using open building
systems; this permits external components to be
assembled by different manufacturers but with
all standard interfaces. This helps the reduction
of waste and enables change later on, if needed.
The majority of the fabrication for GMV is done
off site and assembled on site. Off-site prefabrication
has helped reduce waste and construction time.
It is important to remember
that the 80% of the dwellings are for sale to
the private sector so the material, finishes and
design have to be of an appealing nature in order
to sell the properties. The concept as a whole
is designed, arguably, to engage the consumer.
An article in the Architectural
Journal questioned to whether one loses the village
feeling with twelve storey apartment blocks. One
has to remember the context of this village. It
is not set in an abundance of countryside but
on a brownfield site in SouthEast London. It may
be based on the principles of a village but it
is an urban village because architecturally, technologically
and sociologically this development is attempting
all the advances and lessons learnt in house building/design
in order to be a model for future developments.
Perhaps 'village' is the wrong word to use for
this development but add the word 'Millennium'
and it should help place it in the 21st Century
and remove it from the preconceived idea of a
traditional village.
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