Up it goes: Will Alsop's Heliport Heights, a 20-storey, rusty steel apartment block on stilts, is heading for Battersea

The colourful Heliport Heights will feature 14 apartments, a ground floor art gallery and a suspended conference room.
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Jess Denham23 August 2018

A quirky 20-storey, orange steel apartment block with a suspended, mirrored conference pod is set to take its place along the river in Battersea by 2020.

Heliport Heights, the final major London project from late British architect Will Alsop, will comprise 15 floors of apartments built on stilts above the existing five-storey Heliport House beside the River Thames.

The eye-catching new building will feature multi-coloured balconies, irregular round windows and be clad in jagged panels of weathering steel.

Planning permission for the unconventional block was granted in 2014 but construction stalled after its developer Damsonetti UK went into administration last year.

Financing is now on track to be finalised at the end of the month, with building scheduled to begin on site within "the next few months", according to Alsop's studio aLL Design. Completion is expected two years later.

The three- and four-bedroom apartments with riverside balconies will each take up an entire floor.

The penthouse is designed to span two-storeys and will have a roof terrace.

There will be a small art gallery on the ground floor with a window displaying the work of local artists, while a mirrored, orb-like sculpture suspended from the new building's underside will serve as a conference room.

These additions are intended to spark interest within the surrounding community, with a new art trail planned for the area.

The use of stilts is characteristic of Alsop's style, as seen in Peckham Library, which won him the Stirling Prize in 2000.

People first: Peckham Library was about reclaiming community space (aLL Design)

The elevated design was intended to remove “barriers” to engagement with the library and reclaim space for the community. The conventional library layout was inverted, offering members of the public views across the whole of London from the reading rooms.

Alsop's philosophy was always to aim, where possible to "knock nothing down", and the same thinking can be seen in the design of Heliport Heights.

"Both designs avoid demolishing existing buildings and instead elevate the new structure up off the ground on stilts, over the existing architecture," said a spokesperson for aLL Studio.

"This reduces site waste, preserves a much-loved existing building and provides an interesting and unusual design aesthetic."