Wandsworth Mills

Innovative structural solutions for ‘Aqua Sanctuary’

Situated on the river’s edge, Wandsworth Mills is a new, mixed-use development that merges high-spec residential units with carefully designed natural landscaping and the conservation of Grade II listed buildings.

Central to the design is an Aqua Sanctuary, a unique two-story feature that reflects the site’s commitment to environmental sustainability and water-sensitive urban design.

Two of the blocks of the Wandsworth Mills development are constructed on an area of land which is located to the west of the River Wandle with the blocks sharing a single-storey basement. During the design process for the foundations, substructure and superstructure of the blocks, Walsh helped to deliver innovative and efficient solutions despite the complexity of the site and the various third-party approvals required, including:

• • Piled raft for 37-storey tower saving approx. 6% on total concrete volume in piles when compared to traditional bearing pile alternatives.

• • An optimised bearing pile scheme with smaller, more efficient piles, reducing concrete volume by 20-30%.

• • Design of superstructure to accommodate client and architect vision for the Aqua Sanctuary. Including introduction of transfer dropheads to allow for circular columns within pool space itself and dropped slabs to allow full flexibility for pool specialist.

• • Buttress piles introduced for basement wall to provide unobstructed dig in an optimised secant wall.

• • Basement secant wall optimised to minimise concrete volumes and embodied carbon whilst also providing water cut off as primary waterproofing strategy with installation tolerances analysed at basement formation level.

• • Core stability system with an outrigger solution, reducing concrete volume by 20% and embodied carbon by 7% compared to a core-only approach.