Set in the Battersea Roof Gardens building designed by Norman Foster, the architect behind The Gherkin, the new Art’otel London Battersea Power Station will feature an open-air rooftop pool and garden running the length of the building, created by the designers of New York’s High Line, a disused railway station turned elevated garden.
Beneath the garden level, visitors will be able to access a restaurant and bar offering views of the city as well as a “multi-purpose creative space”, which will be used for exhibitions and other art and cultural events.
In addition to the Art’otel, expected to be completed in 2019, the Battersea Power Station Development Company is also planning to build the Electric Boulevard, a new high street lined with shops and restaurants, and a new public park and community hub known as Prospect Place designed by Frank Gehry, the American architect known for his striking design structures around the world including the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
Prospect Place will form a cluster of five residential buildings with eccentric, art-inspired facades including that of The Flower, which is set to become a new “London architectural landmark”, the developers predict. The Roof Gardens building will also showcase an equally unusual façade mimicking a rippling of waves. The company will also build a new Battersea Power Station London Underground Station.
The latest announcement follows the unveiling of plans earlier this year for a floating glass-bottomed “Sky Pool” to be suspended 35 metres above the ground between two residential buildings near the power station.
Resembling an ‘aquarium in the sky’, it is said to be the first pool in the world to link two residential buildings. The transparent and structure-free pool, designed by Arup Associates and developed by the Ballymore Group, will be 90 by 19 feet, encased in eight inch-thick glass, and have a water depth of around four feet. It will offer aerial views of the capital, including the Houses of Parliament.
Residents of the planned luxury flats in Wandsworth will also be able to access a rooftop deck at both ends of the pool which will offer sun loungers, a spa, a bar and an orangery, while an additional bridge between the two buildings forms a dry walkway for both residents and visitors.