Architectural support needed for a high-profile Battersea Affordable Housing and Community Hub project

What do they need help with?

Battersea Hive is progressing an ambitious community-led project on the Winstanley Estate in Battersea and is now seeking pro bono architectural support to help turn the vision into a credible planning-ready scheme.

The proposal is to transform an existing block into a mixed-use development providing 24 affordable homes above a vibrant ground-floor community space, known as the Battersea Beehive. The ground floor would also include retail space for two traditional local shops, helping bring activity, usefulness and life back to the street.

At the heart of the project is the community hall. Battersea Hive wants to create a welcoming, accessible space that local residents can use seven days a week — a place for gathering, support, activities, meetings and community life.

The wider scheme would provide much-needed affordable housing while improving a currently run-down corner of the Winstanley Estate. The aim is to replace a ramshackle and underused block with something smarter, safer, more attractive and genuinely useful to local people.

This is not yet a developer-led project. Battersea Hive is looking for an architect who can help design or redesign the scheme, test its feasibility, and create drawings and presentation material suitable for a pre-application discussion with Wandsworth Council.

The organisation already has access to pro bono planning support from a professional planning consultant. What is now needed is strong architectural input to bring the whole project together and produce a scheme capable of being presented to the council, lenders, funders and other key stakeholders.

For the right architect or practice, this is a high-profile pro bono opportunity: a visible London project, a strong affordable housing and community brief, and a chance to help create a lasting local asset while demonstrating genuine civic leadership and social purpose.

Timeline

As soon as possible

About the organisation

Battersea Hive is a community-led organisation working to create a new neighbourhood hub on the Winstanley Estate in Battersea.

Its vision is to provide a practical, welcoming community hall for local residents, alongside affordable homes and small retail units that support everyday life in the area.

The proposed Battersea Beehive would be a seven-day-a-week community space where residents can meet, connect, organise activities and access local support. The wider project aims to make better use of an existing block and help bring positive, visible change to this part of Battersea.

https://www.batterseahive.org/