Community, Leisure and Cultural Uses (Use Classes D1 and D2)

8 Design Matters
8.1 This Section should be read in conjunction with a number of other application documents, of which the principal
documents are listed below:
Parameter Plans
Design Strategy Document
Design and Access Statement
Landscape Strategy
Tree Strategy
Access Strategy
Environmental Statement Volume II: Townscape, Visual and Built Heritage Assessment.
8.2 These documents provide a detailed analysis of the Development and justify the Development against planning policy.
The Design Strategy Document, which includes a separate Tall Buildings Strategy, contains the key guiding principles for
the Development and a series of site-wide individual plot, and tall buildings design guidelines. The Design Strategy
Document provides a set of design guidelines which will instruct the future physical development of the Site when
determined through subsequent reserved matters applications.
Design
8.3 Achieving high quality urban design is an overarching planning objective. The importance of place making has been a key
element of the design philosophy for the Heygate Masterplan. The Development has been the subject of vigorous and
extensive pre-application discussions with the Council’s Planning and Design Officers (as detailed in Appendix 4 of this
Statement) and has been reviewed on three separate occasions by the Council’s Design Review Panel. This review
process has resulted in numerous and significant changes to the Heygate Masterplan. These are detailed in Section 4 of
the Design and Access Statement.
8.4 There are a number of fundamental design principles that have underpinned the Development, which are explored in
detail in the Design and Access Statement and have been used to inform the parameters set by the Design Strategy
Document which is submitted for approval. The guiding principles are summarised below:
Connecting the wider area and the district;
Creating a new focus to the area with a central destination open space;
Creating a clear and legible street network with a hierarchy of scale and use;
Delivering a successful place with a mixture of uses and levels of activity;
Providing significant areas of public open space with green amenity;
Creating a network of quality spaces of differing characters and scale;
Providing green linkages and routes;
Developing a sustainable and bio-diverse Masterplan for the long-term;
Responding sensitively to and enhancing the existing natural and built context and the existing heritage assets and
their settings;
Delivering varied building typologies and responding to tall building opportunities;
Setting an overall framework and blueprint for development and design to be delivered through a phased approach.
8.5 The wider vision for the Development is to re-establish a flourishing urban quarter by ensuring there is a variety of
character and experience across the Site.
8.6 The Heygate Masterplan has been developed as a framework with five specific character areas. These character areas
have been established to develop a hierarchy and a series of specific design relationships to the plots and their edges.
This approach maintains flexibility and opportunities for design development at later stages.
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The Heygate Masterplan Elephant and Castle Outline Planning Application March 2012