Frank Gehry and Norman Foster to collaborate on Battersea Power Station

Seminal architects Frank Gehry and Lord Norman Foster will collaborate on a series of building in the redevelopment of Battersea Power Station in a ground-breaking project for British architecture.

This will be Gehry’s first major project in the UK.

The Canadian-American is often described as the world’s greatest living architect. His most famous buildings include Bilbao’s Guggenheim and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA.

Foster + Partners will work alongside Gehry Partners to create a shopping street called the High Street as part of the wider £8bn redevelopment.

The street will connect Battersea Power Station with a new Battersea tube station, and include residential buildings and commercial units, a hotel, a leisure centre and a library.

“I love the power station,” Gehry told the FT. “Every time I came to London I kept asking ‘what are they going to do with that?’ It’s so well positioned it was inevitable that something would happen.”

“London has a great streetscape,” he said. “To reflect it we need to break down the scale, so it becomes a place people can feel at home.”

The FT said that Gehry will create “a strikingly sculptural form” at the centre of his designs.

Gehry told the paper: “The developers said the [potential] renters loved the view of the power station, so I said why don’t we put a more sculptural object, we call it a ‘flower’, in the middle, as a secondary sculpture for Battersea – it gives something for everybody.”

Grant Brooker, design director, Foster + Partners, said: “We moved our own office to Wandsworth almost 25 years ago – the borough is very important to us, so we were absolutely delighted to be chosen to be part of this inspiring regeneration project for the Battersea Power Station redevelopment.

“It has a vision which will transform this area and create a vibrant new district for South London that we can all be proud of.

“Along with our colleagues at Gehry Partners, we are joining a great team of designers and we will work closely with them to create a new high street and our part of this exciting new community.”

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