One of our more challenging roles is to assess an extensive scheme consisting of very high buildings, for visual and contextual assessment, which is only to be submitted as an outline application, particularly when the resulting forms will have a major impact on a complete township as would be the case with this scheme in Barking.

The proposal is to reimagine an existing, rather tired, low-rise shopping centre with a substantial quantity of residential above. In this case our consultancy was put forward by the architects Studio Egret West, with whom we had developed a very good working relationship.

We established a large number of viewpoints from where the scheme would be visible, including in relationship to the scheduled Abbey, the listed church, station and Magistrates Court, conservation areas and the general townscape. This involved a full Environmental Statement, of which our Townscape Heritage and Visual Impact Assessment would form Volume 2.

The early understanding by the architect of the visibility of the scheme illustrated in our early studies assisted in the way the principal buildings would be positioned and gave clues as to how they would look if design codes were carefully written and were carried through. The consultancy’s positivity for the scheme, developed by interpolating the architects’ design intent, was embodied in the ES and fully accepted by the Council.