London’s Eve Park garnering worldwide attention for innovative design

An innovative, ecologically minded development in London, Eve Park, is getting attention around the world.

Eve Park, in the city’s first net-zero community, West 5, on Oxford Street between Kains Road and Westdel Bourne was called one of the 10 most influential architectural projects worldwide by CNN.

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The company behind Eve Park, s2e Technologies, said the international recognition results from research to figure out what an all-electric, solar-powered community looks like.

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“It was a meaningful investment made to develop these homes. You don’t see one of these every day,” said Glen Drummond, a spokesperson for s2e.

The cluster of four doughnut-shaped buildings has 84 residences in total, with 48 two-bedroom units, 32 three-bedroom and four one-bedroom units.

New buyers Michelle Hermansen, 37, and James Agudo, 35, moved into their unit in November. The circular concept was one of the aspects of the development that attracted the couple who recently got engaged.

“I think we’re just in awe to see their vision,” Hermansen said.

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“And how they were able to pull that off,” Agudo added. “It’s super close to the concept photos. They did such a great job of bringing that vision to reality.”

The landscaping is still being finalized, and the finishing product should look exactly like the drawings, said Derek Satnik, vice-president of technology with s2e.

Each of the four buildings will have its own mini-park in the center and residents have places to walk within the community, making it feel “very pedestrian,” Satnik said.

“We’ll see what happens when people are actually settled. We’re still finishing construction now, but it’s very walkable,” he said.

Phase 1 of the project is complete, with 42 units. Phase 2, still being built, has some infrastructure in place. The parking towers are being finalized and the solar panels are yet to be installed, Drummond said.

“There’s a starting set (of solar panels) that is installed in the (parking) towers now and then, as more people switch from internal combustion to electric cars, we’ll add more charging infrastructure to the parking towers as we go,” he said

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Drummond said there’s no timeline for the end of the construction and 80 per cent of its units have been sold. One of the development’s many principles is not to displace any more food-producing land than necessary.

“If we were to take these 84 residences and organize them as single-family homes, that would take at least five times more land than the way these are organized,” Drummond said. “That’s one of the principles and, of course, the low. . . emissions is another of the principles.”

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