Battersea Place is London’s first luxury retirement village. Located on Albert Bridge Road and overlooking Battersea Park, the project provides 128 one and two-bedroom apartments complete with nursing facilities, pool, gym and restaurant. The development provides independent living with integrated healthcare and a full social agenda for the growing band of wealthy retirees. Penthouse apartments top £2.5M each.
Vinci Construction selected post-tensioned floor slabs for economy. In total 12,005m² of suspended PT slabs were used from ground level up to ninth floor. The ground level slabs were temporarily isolated from the capping beam at the top of the contiguous piled retaining wall by dowels which were grouted up 28 days after stressing the slab.
Typical floor slabs are 200mm thick but block A ninth floor and block B sixth floor are transfer slabs supporting the inset steel upper storeys on 250mm thick slabs. Spans are typically 7.2m but they do reach 9.8m in occasional locations meaning the slab is working hard in some places. External steel balconies are fixed to the slab via cast-in Schoeck connectors which form the thermal break.
The design reduces CO2 emissions in use by up to 21% through measures such as optimised glazing to improve daylighting and reduce overheating, along with utilising the thermal mass of the concrete frame, cooling with heat recovery and low energy lighting. The £30M development is due to open in 2015.
