MU2 comprises three office buildings that create the High Street frontage for the Sugar House Island development, VASTINT’s mixed use development in East London.
At pedestrian level, 40,000 sqft of retail, restaurant and café units line the site’s arterial route of Chimney Walk and a new public square at the heart of the site. The public realm celebrates the site’s industrial past, connecting historic yards and carefully retained chimneys; it provides an attractive and accessible environment for future residents, workers and visitors, and generous outdoor spaces for the restaurant and cafe units. The upper levels of the development provide 290,000 sqft of office floor space which will help to generate up to 2,750 new jobs.
The three buildings reimagine traditional brick warehouses, to create contemporary offices that reference the site’s industrial heritage as a printing and dye works on the east bank of the Three Mills river. A two-storey plinth encloses the public realm of Chimney Walk and wraps up and over the tallest office building to mark the main entrance to the Sugar House Island development. Collectively, the buildings are defined by carefully ordered façades with elements of precast concrete. Large windows and high ceilings flood the dual aspect offices with daylight, and generous roof terraces emphasise the focus on health and wellbeing that is central to a high quality design aiming for BREEAM ‘Excellent’.
MU2 is within the Sugar House Lane Conservation Area. Planning (RMA) was granted for the project in 2020, in line with development parameters established by the 2012 Hybrid Planning Permission for Sugar House Island. Construction began in September 2020.
