Art-Invest Real Estate secures detailed planning approval for Dockside Canada Water’s Plot B
29.04.2025, London
Art-Invest Real Estate (Art-Invest) announces that on 29 April 2025, Southwark Council resolved to grant permission for its detailed proposals for Dockside Canada Water’s, Plot B. Approval enables Dockside to bring forward new student accommodation, affordable homes and community space.
Dockside Canada Water is set to bring to central London a unique and exciting proposition; a new urban quarter surrounded by 130 acres of green and blue space that offers new places to work, eat, drink, live and relax fronting the water’s edge. The scheme is the commercial gateway to British Land’s 53-acre new town centre in Canada Water – the most significant regeneration in the city for the last 50 years.
Art-Invest secured outline planning permission for the masterplan in March 2022. This planning application includes detailed plans for the entire Dockside Canada Water masterplan; Plot A and Plot B, but focusses only on the updated proposals for Plot B. The proposals for Plot A remain unchanged from the detailed planning application approved by Southwark Council in September 2023.
Plot B, designed by international architecture practice tp bennett, comprises two residential-led buildings and will bring forward 742 new student rooms, responding to a clear need in the borough and 75 new affordable homes, with a mix of social rents and intermediate tenures. In line with Art-Invest’s initial proposals, the new community space and significant improvements to the surrounding public realm have been retained and will now come forward.
Plot A which incorporates two iconic buildings; One Dockside and Two Dockside will establish itself as the new workplace hub for London. The buildings deliver over 700,000 sq ft NIA of Grade A, sustainability-led office space that is exceptionally well located on the Rotherhithe Peninsula, next to a Zone 2 transport hub. Moments from the Jubilee Line and London Overground station, it is eight minutes to the City, fifteen minutes to the West End and only a two minute journey to Canary Wharf. Designed by internationally renowned architects, BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group and HWKN Architecture , these landmark buildings will offer occupiers the opportunity to make an impact in a location with authenticity and that prioritises wellness and lifestyle in the workplace; two crucial factors in retaining and attracting top talent.
Integral to Dockside is the transformation of the eastern dock edge. Designed by internationally renowned landscape and garden designer and Chelsea Flower Show gold medallist, Andy Sturgeon, the dock edge will become an important new public focal point for the scheme and the community.
Art-Invest is currently progressing detailed designs of the dock edge to bring forward its redevelopment at the same time as Plot A.
Luka Vukotic, Head of Development, Art-Invest Real Estate UK, commented:
“Canada Water is one of London’s largest redevelopment projects and it is rapidly taking shape. Dockside plays a crucial role in its development, by bringing exceptional workspace, a high quality residential offer and public realm that haswellbeing for local people and the future workforce at its heart. It is fantastic to secure a positive decision from Southwark’s planning committee as it completes our vision for Dockside Canada Water and allows us to focus on delivery.”
Nenad Manasijevic, Principal Director at tp bennett added: “The Dockside Canada Water development will provide essential student and affordable housing in Southwark while transforming the local area through new public spaces and connections. Working closely with Art-Invest, we have taken a resident-led design approach to Plot B, focusing on how future students, new homeowners and existing residents can live together harmoniously to create a thriving new neighbourhood. This meant better pedestrian routes to and from local transport hubs; a new public garden, greater connections and integration with the surrounding area, and an emphasis on passive-sustainable, enduring design.”
About Art-Invest Real Estate
Art-Invest Real Estate (AIRE) is an experienced investor, developer and asset manager operating across key gateway cities in Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom and Scandinavia.
Established in 2010 and headquartered in Cologne the business operates as a private partnership with the Zech Group and the managing partners as shareholders. The group invests and manages on behalf of its proprietary capital, regulated institutional funds and select separate accounts and actively pursues a “manage to core” investment strategy across the risk spectrum.
Sector focus is principally the office, retail, hotel, residential and data centres. Since 2012, the company has been licensed to operate as a regulated fund manager in accordance with German investment law (KAGB). During this period Art-Invest Real Estate Funds has successfully launched more than 25 regulated funds for a variety of institutional investors. The group has more than EUR 12.5 bn AuM with more than EUR 2bn invested equity for a range of institutional investors as long-term partners.
About tp bennett
tp bennett is a dynamic architecture and design practice devoted to finding creative solutions. Founded in 1921, we are built on the belief that we are not just designers, but creative problem solvers, offering design ideas that transform how you experience and interact with the built environment.
Located in London, Manchester and Leeds with a global affiliate network, our partnership is supported by specialists in sustainability, strategy, town planning and research, combining design insight with cross-sector collaboration to reframe today’s challenges with solutions that last a lifetime.
Further information can be found at www.tpbennett.com | @tpbennettllp
About BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group
BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group is a Copenhagen, New York, London, Barcelona, and Shenzhen-based group of architects, designers, urbanists, landscape professionals, interior and product designers, researchers and inventors. Led by Bjarke Ingels, the studio is currently involved in projects throughout Europe, the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East. BIG’s architecture emerges out of a careful analysis of how contemporary life constantly evolves and changes. BIG believes that by hitting the fertile overlap between pragmatic and utopia, architects can find the freedom to change the surface of our planet, to better fit contemporary life
About HWKN
HWKN is a global architectural design firm led by Matthias Hollwich. Founded in 2008 and based in New York City, we have projects across the US, Europe, and the Middle East. We work on buildings, art galleries, neighborhoods, cities, and new forms of architecture, we participate in the art world.