Planning officers supported the creation of new office and retail space and noted that the retrofit avoided demolition waste, reduced carbon emissions and impacts associated with transport, landfill and new materials.
Source:Fathom Architects
Revised plans for the building were submitted in September to remove the green wall and scale back planters on its terraces. However, local groups and residents objected to the revision and the living wall was put back into plans that were again revised and submitted in November.
The surgery said on its website that it had taken legal action after expecting to be able to use the site for another 10 years. It is moving to a temporary modular building on the same road for two years, while it looks to find new permanent premises.
The new 1-5 Lower Marsh will retain the same amount of medical floorspace and see an increase in retail and office use.
Planning officers recommended councillors approve the proposals, stating that the visible living wall ‘would result in a low degree of less than substantial harm to the significance’.
Originally submitted in May, designs to create workspace ‘for a new generation of occupiers’ include a new part-fifth and part-sixth floor and extension of the fourth floor to accommodate 1,438m² of extra office space.
Plans for the 6,300m² project to refurbish and extend the former 1990-built NHS office building at 1-5 Lower Marsh were considered at a meeting of the local authority’s planning committee on Tuesday (12 December).
It added: ‘The redevelopment aims to be an exemplar sustainable retrofit. The scheme aims to strike a balance between retaining as much of the building as possible to reduce the creation of additional embodied carbon while significantly improving the operational performance of the building.’
The plans also incorporate a green wall on the front façade and an upgrade of existing external terraces including greening, new roof terraces and courtyard amenity spaces and improved cycle parking facilities.
The LOMA project (1-5 Lower Marsh) by Fathom Architects, approved on 12 December 2023 – model and materials
Conditions attached to the approval included that both green walls must be maintained to a high standard throughout the lifetime of the scheme. The AJ has previously highlighted how badly maintained living walls can rapidly degrade into dead foliage and increase fire risks.
Some had objected to the plans on the basis that the Waterloo Health Centre GP surgery on site with more than 10,000 patients has been told to close by its landlord to make way for the redevelopment.
A second green wall, on the building’s southern façade, is also included in the designs but is only visible from inside the development itself.
Fathom said in a planning document that the scheme, known as LOMA and backed by client Capital 38, aimed to help with the area’s improvement plan and also ‘tackle the effects of the climate crisis’. The entire frame is being thermally upgraded with, according to the practice, as much as possible of the existing façade retained.
Source:Fathom Architects
Lambeth Council’s conservation and urban design officers, however, were not supportive of the living wall on the basis that the building is within the Lower Marsh Conservation Area.
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