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Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —

Staples Corner— London

Client(s)

London Borough of Brent

Collaborator(s)

Alan Baxter / PRD / RCKa / XCO2

The Staples Corner Growth Area Masterplan and Design Code SPD provides a detailed vision and planning policy framework for the regeneration and growth of the Staples Corner area over the next twenty years.

Brent’s Local Plan designates Staples Corner for industrial and housing growth. The ambition is to transform the area into a new mixed-use community, providing a range of new business premises fit for modern-day occupiers and at least 2,200 new homes with an improved environment and supporting infrastructure.

The Masterplan SPD sets out a compelling narrative to achieve buy-in and consensus and guide coordinated positive change to support growth in this area, intensify industrial uses, and establish an urban framework that can accommodate a mix of new uses, including new homes.

The Masterplan, as well as being technically robust, seeks to be commercially viable, optimised in terms of value, and ultimately deliverable over the next 20 years.

The team assembled by 5th Studio to deliver the Masterplan includes RCKa as the community engagement lead, Alan Baxter as the transport and movement lead, PRD as the commercial lead, and XCO2 as the environmental and services lead.

Staples Corner, located in North West London, is a large industrial area primarily in the London Borough of Brent. It is well connected, nestled between major arterial infrastructure, the North Circular Road, and the M1.

Staples Corner is typologically diverse and includes some relatively poor-quality industrial buildings, low-density employment spaces, and poor-quality access arrangements.

The opening of Brent Cross West station – the first major new mainline station in London in over a decade – brings Staples Corner to within 12 minutes of St Pancras via Thameslink. There is a strong prospect that Brent Cross West would also connect to Old Oak Common (HS2 and Crossrail) via the planned West London Orbital Services.

The emergence of a new Metropolitan Town Centre at nearby Brent Cross will further transform the area, with 20,000+ new jobs, 9,300 new homes plus amenity and cultural offer identified across the Brent Cross and Brent Cross West Growth Areas.

Given these factors and the opportunities of these adjacencies, LB Brent’s Local Plan acknowledges the regeneration potential of the Staples Corner site as an exemplary 15-min city, focussed on the new station, with a rich mix of uses including places to live and work.

Urban Framework

The Urban Framework includes coordinated Spatial Strategies for land use, landscape, public realm, and activation within the Growth Area, providing a clear vision and priorities for guiding change.

These spatial strategies create a framework for which development can sit within and can support a variety of scenarios enabling individual landowners to come forward with their own approaches.

Illustrative Masterplan

The process of masterplanning can be instrumental in building a unifying and resilient strategic narrative to achieve buy-in, consensus and guide coordinated positive change. It is important to consider how the masterplan can balance defining this narrative with being commercially viable, and optimised in terms of value and ultimately deliverable.

The purpose of the Illustrative Masterplan is to test scenarios that meet policy objectives and to demonstrate that spatial strategies can provide a context for positive change. It should not be read as a fixed masterplan because different scenarios – dependent on different delivery approaches and typologies – could be equally successful in fulfilling the policy objectives.

It will be used as a tool to enable investment and development activity – allowing future flexibility in adapting to marketplace changes.

Development Briefs

Development Briefs provide a site-specific vision, development framework, and a clear set of site-specific development principles to guide future site development in a manner that supports the wider aims of the Staples Corner Masterplan and Urban Design Framework. They aim to reduce uncertainty and set a framework for development that provides clear guidance on what is expected from development, while also raising the standard of design.

A Joint Vision

This is a complex project involving multiple landowners and stakeholders with intersecting strategic and local concerns and priorities. It has been informed by extensive community and landowner engagement including:

  • On-site ‘Splash campaign’ held over two days, handing out over 200 leaflets and talking to business owners, employees, and local people.
  • An in-person engagement event was held at Bellissima Ristorante. The event drew a lot of attention with 26 people attending including businesses and landowners.
  • Online engagement event.
  • The Community Vision Questionnaire, hosted on Brent's 'Have Your Say' website, was live throughout May 2023. The questionnaire received 99 responses.
Image: Secchi Smith

The Design Code

The Staples Corner Design Code is a core part of the draft SCGA SPD and has been developed using funding secured from the Department for Levelling Up, Homes & Communities. 5thStudio worked with Brent to illustrate the design requirements for new developments coming forward in this area.

Related

Stratford Station Vision — London

Creating a strong urban design framework to shape positive-change around Stratford's stations and to improve the experience of using the stations

Old Oak and Park Royal — London

Public Realm and Connectivity Strategy to inform the development of the OPDC local plan and the future development of this strategic site

Royal Docks Public Realm Framework — London

Developing and guiding the delivery of a comprehensive public realm framework for London’s Royal Docks

CONTACT

studio@5thstudio.co.uk

We are keen to receive CVs and short portfolios from Part 1 and Part 2 designers. Please contact us via recruitment@5thstudio.co.uk

We actively encourage qualified applicants from underrepresented backgrounds to apply.

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