Plans approved for Native Land’s 110,000-sq-ft workspace at Bankside Yards

Native Land has received planning approval for a new 110,000-sq-ft sustainable office at its Bankside Yards development in the London Borough of Southwark.

Designed by leading office architects Stiff+Trevillion, as part of PLP Architecture’s Bankside Yards masterplan, the 13-storey building will deliver Grade A sustainable workspace to meet SME demand in the undersupplied South Bank market.

Conceived as a new-era workspace, part of the UK’s first major mixed-use fossil fuel free development, the building’s highly sustainability features will help occupiers achieve their own ESG goals. Designed to achieve BREEAM Outstanding, its all-electric building systems to be supplied by a renewable energy source means it will be net zero carbon in operation.

A more solid façade will reduce solar gain and heat loss and a post-tensioned concrete structure will keep embodied carbon to a minimum.

The approved plans also include a 68% increase in affordable workspace to 10,763-sq-ft including 7,000-sq-ft of flexible Class E space at Ground Floor level, particularly suitable for the growing creative, media and technology businesses in the South Bank area.

With a focus on indoor/outdoor space, ‘Building 8’ will feature large terraces on the sixth and tenth floors. The project will enhance the biodiversity of the site, turning a previously inaccessible area into nearly 4,300 sq ft of new public realm, including a pocket park.

Basement levels will include 300 cycle spaces, higher than GLA standards, to accommodate one of the major priorities for occupiers post-pandemic.

The building will also be fully integrated into landscaped green space, as part of Bankside Yards’ 3.3 acres of riverside public realm.

Jay Squier, Executive Director at Native Land, said:

“Building 8 will meet undersupplied demand in the Southwark market for workspaces that are high quality as well as highly sustainable with outdoor spaces, flexibility and affordability designed-in from the beginning. Having worked in Bankside for more than a decade, we have seen the increased presence of media, creative, technology and professional businesses. Building 8’s offer to smaller businesses will compliment our nearby Arbor building, and recently approved Building 1, which are both designed for larger corporate users.”

Native Land has been the leading developer in the Bankside area for more than a decade. It is well advanced in delivering new workspace at Bankside Yards, having invested ahead of other pipeline developments. Arbor, the first office to complete at Bankside Yards, has attracted high-profile tenants, including law firm Lewis Silkin, who will relocate from the City of London, and the recently announced Carbon Trust, who will make Arbor its global HQ.

The 1.4 million sq ft Bankside Yards development will be the UK’s first major mixed-use regeneration scheme with net zero emissions in operation.