The development provides 900 new homes, student housing, a hotel, lively ground floor uses including shops, restaurants, bars, offices, workshop space, a one-acre park and new community space. The masterplan created a high density inner-city neighbourhood incorporating a robust renewable and sustainable energy strategy – low energy cooling measures, green roofs – over 0.8 hectares of public space. Seven towers rise up to 24 storeys above the courtyard blocks, providing slender glass beacons for a new urban quarter in the city. The towers are designed with a recognisable front featuring a delicate filigree of aluminium fins which articulate the framing of the glazed balconies.
Sustainability and flexibility are at the heart of the design, with the courtyard buildings designed as adaptable, robust structures of significant thermal mass. The simple structural grid allows for future changes of use (residential space of all types, offices, other workspace and shops) within and between buildings. A series of new public spaces and streets improve permeability, reconnecting and integrating with the existing street pattern and providing new pedestrian routes north to south and east to west through Goodman’s Fields. The sense of place is enhanced by quality architecture and a rich mixture of uses at ground floor level, complimenting Aldgate’s considerable cultural and educational assets. The first phase was completed in 2016 and final phase completed in 2020. Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands were also architects for the Goodman’s Fields Masterplan.
