It was confirmed today that Denmark’s most famous architectural export, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), has been chosen to design Malaysia Square, a public space at the centre of the Battersea Power Station redevelopment.
The first images of the design – marking BIG’s first appointment in the UK – were unveiled in Kuala Lumpur by London mayor Boris Johnson and Najib Razak, the prime minster of Malaysia.
The brief was to create a permanent showcase for Malaysian culture, and to recognise the part that the country has played in converting the power station into a new quarter of London.
BIG has responded with a flamboyantly multi-layered design based around streamlined organic curves and a hibiscus-shaped fountain set in a central amphitheatre. The hibiscus was chosen because it is Malaysia’s national flower, and each of the five petals represents a principle each from the Rukunegara, its founding philosophy.
The landscape is set to include limestone, granite, marble, sandstone, gravel and dolomite cladding, all of which are present in the geology of Malaysia. The sculptured form is intended to evoke the stunning caves found in Gunung Mulu National Park in Sarawak, east Malaysia.
Bjarke Ingels, the founding partner of BIG, said the square was meant to create “a cascading landscape carved into the street” that was intended to lend “dignity to the majestic industrial heritage while paving the way for a new Malaysia identity”.
Malaysia Square’s landscaping will include limestone, granite, marble and sandstone (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
BIG, based in Copenhagen and New York, won a design competition launched in June 2014 by Battersea Power Station Development Company. Its best-known projects include a Copenhagen waste incinerator that will double as an urban ski slope, the 8 House, a mixed use development in the shape of the figure 8, and a Lego-shaped headquarters for Lego.
According to the masterplan drawn up by the Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly, Malaysia Square will link the southern entrance of the power station and the top of the Electric Boulevard that runs between Foster + Partners’ Battersea Roof Gardens and Gehry Partners’ Prospect Place.
Other contributors to the winning design team include structural engineer AKT II, lighting specialist Speirs + Major, and the artist Jeppe Hein.
Boris Johnson said: “Once the generator of megawatts, Battersea Power Station’s revamp is now sparking the wider rejuvenation of a once forgotten and neglected part of the capital, supporting tens of thousands of new homes and jobs and delivering regeneration on a scale rarely seen before.”
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The power station, which is the largest brick building in Europe, is being developed by a joint venture between two Malaysian companies, developer SP Setia and the conglomerate Sime Darby, which bought the site for $645m in 2012.
When the power station and its surroundings are completed in 2019, it will include 3,500 homes, 150 shops and workspaces for 15,000 people as well as 12 football pitches-worth of open space and 60 restaurants, cafes and bars.
The launch comes 31 years after the power station ceased generating electricity, and after a long history of failed developments, including schemes drawn up by Hong Kong firm Parkview and Irish developer Real Estate Opportunities.
