The design is show-stopping but it has to be said, the location at Capital Interchange Way, tucked between the M4 and the South Circular, is less so.
However, as well as being very near the motorway and Heathrow airport, it’s handy for central London. If approved by Hounslow council, the project will include 550 new homes, completed by about 2021.
There will also be transport links, a bus depot, new offices and business “pods” for start-up firms, parks between and on top of the blocks, and a stadium for Brentford Football Club on the industrial site close to Kew Bridge station.
While modest by central and east London standards, the planned three main buildings will, at 18, 19, and 20 storeys, form a west London landmark that will be easily visible from the M4, Gunnersbury Park, and from planes approaching Heathrow.
As well as their unusual design — one tower will be rectangular, one oval, and one will taper outwards from a narrow base, with Alsop’s trademark pops of primary-colour cladding — the buildings feature some novel approaches to “vertical village” living.
Runners will enjoy a roof-level running track “providing opportunity for exercise away from the busy roads”, and there will be areas for residents to use as allotments for growing fruit and veg.
Given its proximity to the M4, air pollution at the site will be a concern. However, a report commissioned by site owner Facilitas Technical Engineering Services, a privately owned property and construction company, claims that after three months of monitoring nitrogen dioxide and particulate levels on Capital Interchange Way it concluded that local air quality is within standards set out by the World Health Organisation, the European Union and the British Government.
Alex Moussaieff, development consultant at estate agents Aston Chase, believes buyers will consider homes with a motorway blight on the doorstep because they are desperate for somewhere to live at the right price. The homes in the new scheme have not yet been priced.
The development is part of the ongoing rejuvenation of the hinterland of the Great West Road, once nicknamed the Golden Mile and lined with some of London’s finest Art Deco industrial buildings. Over the last few years developers have been taking over these buildings and repurposing them as housing, notably Bellway Homes’ WestSide scheme on the site of the Thirties Alfa Laval building, and Barratt London’s Great West Quarter, a 900-home scheme centred on the Grade II-listed Wallis House, originally occupied by aircraft company Simmonds Aerocessories.
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