Data centre approved as part of Truman Brewery masterplan in east London
Plans unveiled by architecture studio Buckley Gray Yeoman for offices, homes and a data centre near Brick Lane in London have been approved.
Planned for three sites in the east London neighbourhood, the Truman Brewery masterplan will comprise eight buildings designed by Buckley Gray Yeoman (BGY), alongside London-based studios Carmody Groarke, Morris+Company and Henley Halebrown.
Approved last week by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the contentious proposal will include a 5,200-square-metre data centre designed by Morris+Company.
Additionally, plans for 35,000-square-metres of office, retail and community space will include the redevelopment of the existing Truman Brewery. This will see a two-story extension and public space added to the building's grade II-listed Boiler House.
Forty four homes will also be built as part of the development, six of which will be social housing specifically designed to accommodate larger Bangladeshi-heritage families.
Renders of the proposal reveal a series of multi-storey buildings flanked by courtyards and signposted by the Truman Brewery chimney.
Plans originally submitted by BGY in 2024 were strongly opposed by the Tower Hamlets Council and local campaign group Save Brick Lane, which argued the development could displace local residents and businesses.
Despite controversy over the plans, the UK Housing Secretary Angela Rayner suggested that the Truman Brewery proposal will bring "increased footfall" to local businesses and generate employment.
Rayner and Labour minister Matthew Pennycook also praised the data centre for its "very significant" public benefits and "associated economic benefits".
In response to the approved plans, Save Brick Lane expressed that it was "deeply disappointed".
Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman also criticised the lack of social housing, noting a "missed opportunity" to address the borough's "acute housing crisis", according to the BBC.
"Against that backdrop, development of this scale delivering only six homes for social rent falls significantly short of addressing local need," Rahman said.
In other architecture news, plug-in solar panels, which can be fitted onto balconies, are set to become available in the UK and the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard has been launched by certification company Bureau Veritas in a bid to minimise greenwashing.
The renders are by Conica Studio.
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