Guy's Student Village

The design brief seeks to maximise the potential for development of the site, through the provision of up to 450 new bed spaces with associated ancillary facilities and commercial spaces at ground floor level. The design responds to the scale of surrounding streets and spaces and follow the criteria of a strategic brief based on BDP's previous experience of best practice student accommodation projects.

A cluster of five buildings is set in the historic yards and lanes in the 'backlands'' behind Borough High Street. The proposals have been developed in close collaboration with Southwark Council and local interest groups and businesses and contribute to the wider regeneration of the London Bridge Quarter. The design and layout maximises active ground floor uses including retail, food and beverage and student common spaces opening onto the reinvigorated Yards. A new north-south public route through the site provides pedestrian access and will greatly improve permeability.

Two new outdoor spaces create a new green City Garden and a hard landscaped flexible even space respectively. The mixed-use development provides high quality residential accommodation for 400 students within a new vibrant community that is critical to student wellbeing and satisfaction. The ensuite study bedrooms are arranged in cluster flats each with a shared social space.

The proposals are highly sustainable, contributing to economic and social enhancement of the area and environmentally through a zero carbon design, green roofs and walls, sustainable drainage and other active measures. The emerging design has been informed through consultation with stakeholders including meetings and workshops with local groups, residents, neighbours and councillors.