Avant Garde Design for Chiswick Roundabout Bus Garage

Award-winning architect Will Alsop has futuristic concept for site

A new proposal has been put forward for a landmark building containing Metroline's relocated bus garage on the Chiswick Roundabout approach.

The current bus garage on Commerce Road would be replaced by a school if plans to build one on the site proceed. This would be next to the ISIS development at Brentford Lock West.

One of the main impediments to this idea has been finding an alternative location for a bus garage that is suitable for the traffic requirements.

The new site would be next to the M4 and adjacent to the plot which until recently was going to be the site of the Octopus building.

The Golden Mile Site Capacity Study suggests the need for icons with "several buildings at key locations adjacent to the M4 will become the new icons for the corridor, the memorable buildings that help to define the Golden Mile’s future image and dramatically changing the gateway into West London from the M4.

"These buildings will be unique in their form and architectural expression and relate to both the city scale of the M4 and the more local scale of the Great West Road."

The images below show very early concept art of what an iconic bus garage might look like from the M4, with the proposed Octopus building to the left. Access will be via Capital Interchange Way.

The building would comprise a bus garage with a car showroom directly above. On top of that would be a mixture of hotel and residential.

This early design is by Will Alsop, a prominent architect who has won awards for Peckham Library and the Sharp Centre for Design, Toronto. The latter uses supporting columns in a similar way to what is being proposed for this one, as can be seen from this view from the other side:

This is in the very early stages of design and still has to be consulted on and planning applications have not yet been submitted.

April 15, 2015