The mixed-use development 140 Wales Farm Road known as “Perfume Factory” marks a significant milestone in Imperial College London’s investment into their new campus in North Acton. The project is seen as a catalyst for further expansion of the new campus district, central to the College’s estates strategy vision. The new redevelopment sits at a key entrance point to the Park Royal Opportunity Area, within an area identified as the ‘Southern Gateway’ in the Park Royal OAPF. Perfume Factory forms parts of a larger redevelopment zone and complements he area immediately surrounding the Site which has recently been redeveloped to provide a variety of new mixed-use projects, many of which include tall buildings.
The brief from Imperial College London was to create a mixed-use development on a 0.73 hectare site. The project includes the demolition of the existing buildings and construction of five new buildings arranged over 5 to 31-storeys, comprising:
• 85 Residential units, developed as Build to Rent accommodation. It is proposed that 35 of the residential units will be delivered as affordable housing in the form of Discount Market Rent available to College Key Workers.
• Office and commercial workspace development of 67,000 sqft of high quality, flexible accommodation arranged over 6 floors. The provision of modern and flexible work space is an important piece of key infrastructure in the greater Imperial College London development plan.
• Student accommodation comprising 603 rooms and a total of 736 beds. These are distributed in a variety of arrangements, including six bed Cluster Units, Twin Units, individual Studios, Warden Units and Sub Warden Units, each bedroom with its own bathroom suite. The student accommodation forms the tallest element of the development, raising to 31 stories and creating an iconic identity for the Perfume Factory development.
The 140 Wales Farm Road project is a prime example of CJCT’s skill in mixed-use developments as the project contains extensive spaces of high quality BCO level office accommodation, Private Rental Sector apartments, Student accommodation and ground floor retail uses.
CJCT have been commission to provide full architectural services from RIBA Stage 1 to 7, working with the client team until the completion of RIBA stage 3, with some elements of Stage 4 such as scheduling accelerated prior to novation. Following on from this, CJCT have been novated to contractor Ardmore to deliver the building which was completed in September 2020.
