New designs for Battersea Power Station unveiled

NEW designs for Battersea Power Station have been unveiled after a plan for a 250-metre "eco-chimney" was scrapped in the face of hostility from local residents and Boris Johnson.

The latest proposal for the £4 billion project shows a glass roof curving over Giles Gilbert Scott's Grade II listed building, with a series of medium-rise blocks on either side.

Crucially for fans of the structure, its famous chimneys are to be left intact. In the previous, rejected design, a huge eco-chimney and an accompanying dome were meant to contain a wind turbine for energy and provide heating for the office blocks, making it carbon-neutral.

The developers have now redesigned the scheme with Uruguayan architect Rafael Vinoly as part of a public consultation by Wandsworth Council on the regeneration of the Nine Elms area.

Rob Tincknell, managing director of developer Treasury Holdings, told the magazine Building Design: "The site will be transformed into the first large-scale, urban, carbon-neutral development in the UK. It will provide around 13,000 jobs and 3,500 homes and a new six-acre riverside park with direct access to Battersea Park."

The scheme has also received a cautious welcome from Save Britain's Heritage. Secretary William Palin said: "The positive thing is the space in front of the power station - that's important. But the curved roof looks incongruous - the wonderful thing about the power station is the angularity of it. I don't think it complements the building."

The development also includes extending the Northern Line to the site by 2015 - the first privately funded extension of the Tube.