Acton Gardens Phase 9.4

About this project

Acton Gardens Phase 9.4 is a development undertaken by Countryside Partnerships in collaboration with L&Q and Ealing Council. This phase won the Best Urban Regeneration Project award in 2019 at the First Time Buyer Awards.

BDC was appointed as Civil and Structural Engineering consultants for the detailed design of this phase, which is part of the larger masterplan for the Acton Garden Estate redevelopment. BDC worked closely with A&P Architects to deliver the project.

The development consists of 209 mixed-tenure residential units, including duplexes and 1, 2, and 3-bedroom apartments, with a maximum height of 12 stories.

The project posed challenges due to the site topography and the mix of tenures, as the original planning permission did not fully address these issues. The design features two-story duplex units around the full perimeter between the ground and first floors, with flat units arranged around four main cores above. The apartment grids did not align well with the narrower duplex units below, requiring the incorporation of significant transfer structures at the second-floor level.

A communal internal podium deck was created at the first-floor level, covering the undercroft car parking. The site is surrounded by existing roads and infrastructure, and attenuation tanks were designed to be installed between the structural foundations beneath the car parking area.

The building is constructed using an RC flat slab frame, with transfer plates and beams as needed, all supported on piled foundations. A glide-on balcony system was adopted to maximise off-site construction and reduce installation time.

Due to the proximity to railway lines, the tower crane had to be designed with Network Rail’s limitations in mind, as the crane’s collapse radius overlapped with the railway.

The brick detailing was a key architectural feature of the building, and BDC worked closely with the architects and site team to ensure that the completed structure closely matched the original CGI images, as evidenced in the final photos.