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Carillion team wins ‘floating village’ contract

24 Jul 14 Carillion Igloo Genesis has won a competition to design and build Britain’s first ‘floating village’.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson had announced the plan for the village in February last year, as part of his on-going drive to transform the Royal Docks. Carillion Igloo Genesis has now been chosen to transform the 15 acres of water at the Royal Victoria Dock site, sitting directly to the east of the Emirates Airline. The project will create a community with floating homes, restaurants, cafes and bars.

Although a first for the UK, floating developments are already a popular idea elsewhere, including schemes at ljburg near Amsterdam and Hafen City in Hamburg. The architect for the floating village is dRMM, led by Professor Alex de Rijke and the scheme engineer is Buro Happold.

The winning consortium’s scheme includes a custom-build approach for each of the 50 residential homes, enabling prospective occupiers to be part of the design process of their homes. Facilities will include a market square, a multi-purpose events space and cafes, shops and leisure and office space. Plans for additional facilities, such as a floating Lido and an ice rink, were also proposed as part of the bid.

Chris Brown, director of Carillion Igloo Genesis said: “Living in a floating home you've helped to design is a dream lots of us have. By combining the floating home experience of our Dutch collaborators with our custom built business we hope to make these dreams come true in Royal Victoria Dock for a few lucky Londoners. East London's place on the tourist trail is growing fast. It's about to be joined by Europe’s largest floating village, with floating markets, creative workspace, events and watersports.”

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Carillion Igloo Genesis’ submission is 100% floating with the walkways, residential and non-residential units anchored in place using a series of piles located within the dock and connected to the dock by bridges.

The floating water-homes will use the same concrete foundations that are already in use at the Ijburg development in Holland. The construction of the homes including the bases will be carried out off-site and then transported by water to site.

A planning application is expected to be submitted to Newham Council in spring 2015.

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MPU
MPU

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