Thamesmead
Delivering a sustainable, integrated and resilient Thamesmead
We were commissioned to provide strategic guidance and a stakeholder engagement strategy to Peabody, Thamesmead’s developer and major landowner. This was in support of the redevelopment of the area, one of London’s largest brownfield sites, establishing it as a best practice model for sustainable and resilient urban and community development.
“The borough is facing considerable pressures on space, infrastructure and services.”
The role of DG Cities
Our work focused on four key areas:
Development and delivery of a stakeholder engagement strategy to ensure the development met the needs and benefited from the inputs of all parties, ranging from the GLA to local businesses
Development of a strategy that embedded sustainable and smart urban design principles into the development
Identification of key objectives and areas of intervention to deliver the strategy
Futureproofing the development through exploring how digital technologies could deliver smarter homes and enable a better understanding of how environments are performing, how services are being utilised and how communities operate. Delivering the next generation of urban services to facilitate smarter and more efficient use of resources.
“Taking a longer term perspective of developments is core to DG Cities’ approach and gives developers the confidence that large scale endeavours can be built with sufficient flexibility to adapt to future trends.”
Why is this work important?
Greenwich is one of six East London growth boroughs identified by the GLA due to its large availability of brownfield sites. The borough is therefore facing considerable pressures on space, infrastructure and services. Thamesmead was, at the time we were engaged, one of Greenwich’s strategically located brownfield sites waiting to be developed. Therefore, its development was a great opportunity to set up a blueprint / reference for future sustainable urban development and planning by harnessing the potential of new digital technologies and embedding smart urban design principles that would future-proof the development - its spaces, infrastructure, services and communities.
Taking a longer term perspective of developments is core to DG Cities’ approach and gives developers the confidence that large scale endeavours can be built with sufficient flexibility to adapt to future trends which are both identifiable today and not yet known.
Our “whole-city” integrated planning approach also ensures that developments work for all parties, supporting longer term city strategies and delivering liveable and resilient environments for residents.