Welcome to Bdonline. co. uk. This uses cookies. Read our policy.
The Ashford County Council’s creation plans committee approved the plans with a 10-2 majority vote
The plans for a £ 100 million headquarters and the Brompton motorcycle factory on a 100 -acres wetland site near Ashford, Kent, were approved last night on the Council of the Municipal of Ashford, despite the recent announcement that the task is waiting.
The resolution comes after Brompton revealed a significant downplay in profits, with pre-tax profit for the year ending March 2024 falling to just £4,602, as opposed to £10. 7 million last year. The company has cited a global market for bicycles that comes out and offers a glut of less expensive motorcycles as reasons for the delay.
The approved plans, designed by Hollaway Studio, feature a circular building raised 2.2m above the floodplain on stilts. The development aims to transform the wetlands into a publicly accessible nature reserve while housing a state-of-the-art factory capable of producing over 200,000 bicycles annually and employing more than 1,500 people.
The design incorporates sustainable shipping principles, without new parking spaces. Staff and visitors will be encouraged through motorcycles or public shipping. A giant cycle trail will serve as the main artery of the building, which will allow cyclists to pass directly to the factory, internal internal and a museum on the roof.
Will Butler-Adams, Brompton managing director, described the task as a “revolutionary and sustainable bicycle factory of the future. ” He said: “The factory will fuse the public and personal fields of the industry by allowing the public to only see how Brompton motorcycles are manufactured, but to reveal and teach the functioning of the industry, a rarity in such contexts and anything that position he firmly within the community.
When comparing the vision with a “Bournville in the century”, Butler-Adams stressed the ambition of the allocation to integrate industry, sustainability and network participation.
>> Read also: Hollaway Studio designs a “floating” bicycle for Brompton
Butler-Adams told the Plans Committee that Brompton Bikes aimed to bring “a little more fitness and happiness to our cities. “
The proposed progression includes spaces for designers, creators and a production installation, all connected through an internal street. The construction is intended to create a symbiotic dating between industry and nature, with the main partner of Hollaway Studio, Guy Hollaway, pointing out that the design “will seem above the wetlands, allowing water titles to rise and fall naturally ” The bases will also take advantage of geothermal power to heat construction.
“This ambitious project is truly ground-breaking in its approach and aspires to act as an exemplar to demonstrate how industry can embrace sustainable methods of transport and create an architecture that reflects the ethos of Brompton bicycles,” added Hollaway.
Despite the approval, the development’s future remains uncertain following Brompton’s financial struggles. The company’s current factory in Greenford, west London, is expected to remain operational until at least 2030. Construction on the Ashford site was initially planned for completion by 2027, but no revised timeline has been announced.
The Ashford City Council’s Planning Committee approved the plans through a 10-2 majority, with councilmembers spotting the project’s perspective on local biodiversity and seasoning the economy, even when considerations were raised about wildlife habitat loss and limited parking design.
Five-storey Folkestone scheme described by judges as a “labour of love”
Kent wetlands HQ will be ‘a 21st-century Bournville’
Plans for 357 houses in the old gasworks signed after the time of redesign of the ladder
City tower designed for Brookfield up before councillors on Friday
The building designed through the BDP is one of the largest in the city’s money district
A time capsule to explore transaction and memory