The Waterside, Belfast takes centre stage at World Architecture News Awards

Conceived by world renowned architects, Henning Larsen, The Waterside masterplan was the winner of the Future Projects Urban Design Award. Praised by the judges as a “tasteful and well-conceived plan”, The Waterside is set to revive Belfast by linking East Belfast and the city centre, inviting people to repopulate the city and becoming a focal point of the city’s flourishing creative eco-system. 

The 1.8M sq ft of regeneration development will create a new world-class waterfront locale that includes Grade A contemporary offices, a hotel, 700 homes across a range of tenures, retail and leisure space, plus a new pedestrian and cycle bridge. Architects Henning Larsen bring a Nordic understanding of outdoor living to Belfast.

Lasse Westergaard, Senior Architect, said: “The Waterside will fully activate the potential of the River Lagan. We know that harbours have enormous potential to activate public life in a city. The masterplan will create the framework for people to feel part of a shared public life, as the River Lagan will no longer create a barrier in Belfast but is going to connect it instead.

"The terraced stone landscape of the Giant's Causeway was a general source of inspiration for the development, from the stepped massing of the buildings, the layout of the terraced landscape areas, to the use of stone and geometric patterns in outdoor surfaces and pavements. Analysing the microclimate, the architects applied an effective scale-gradient strategy to the project. Instead of winds being guided through the streets, the strategy of placing the lower buildings towards the waterfront guides winds over the building to reduce wind speeds significantly and thus prolonging the outdoor season.

"Additionally, a key objective is to bring as much daylight as possible into the buildings and public realm on site.”

The Waterside masterplan is being realised by place-making visionary, Osborne+Co’s Chris Kane, who sees development as a tool to help drive workplace and cultural evolution in Belfast, bringing global benchmarks for ‘best in class’ property development to the city. 

Planning approval has already been granted for a 25,000 sq metre, 13 storey Grade A Office development which will be operational by 2021. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2019, under the guidance of Osborne+Co’s Construction Director Flan McNamara, formerly Project Director on the £2BN London Bridge Quarter (& The Shard). When its transformation is complete this derelict site will become a world-class destination for 21st century working, living and entertainment.

The WAN Awards 2018 has 30 categories recognising the world’s top architects and their current and future projects. The 2018 winners were revealed at a celebration dinner at the London Hilton Bankside recently, attended by architects and industry leaders from around the world. For the full list of winners of the WAN Awards 2018, click on to: https://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/article/1519216/top-global-projects-triumph-wan-awards

Privately owned, Osborne+Co was established by Jim and Conor Osborne as the new umbrella brand that unites their global track record of delivering projects under the GRDI name and as the UK property business of Vanguard Real Estate, with $2.5BN of end value projects across four continents.