The masterplan’s first phase will include up to 1,300 mixed tenure homes including affordable homes which will be delivered alongside a mix of cultural spaces, offices that will provide opportunities for hundreds of jobs, alongside public parks, squares, plazas, and public realm.

The importance and prioritization of the public realm were decisive for the choice of SLA:

“Extensive engagement to date has illustrated the importance of creating a place truly welcoming and accessible for all, leading to a commitment to introduce a people-led and nature-based place. Responding to this, ECDC has appointed globally renowned Danish practice SLA as the landscape architect across the whole development site,” says ECDC in a press release.

As landscape and public realm designer, SLA will work together with masterplanners Hawkins Brown and Studio Egret West and alongside phase 1 architects Sheppard Robson with Serie Architects and dRMM, ACME and Haworth Tompkins, and Maccreanor Lavington to develop detailed designs for the first phase of the emerging masterplan.

The masterplan will develop Earls Court based on the area’s strong cultural and industrial heritage, create new connections between the Burroughs of Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham, and open up and connect the former Exhibition Center site to the outside world for the first time in 150 years.

“Earls Court is a place where people used to share magical experiences. We believe we can add to that legacy by uniting people and city through biodiversity and a generous, community-led, and nature-based public realm for all Earls Court,” says Rasmus Astrup, Design Principal and Partner in SLA.

Construction for the first phase is set to commence in 2025.

Earls Court is the second major London public realm masterplan won by SLA. SLA is also the Public Realm and Landscape Masterplanner for the £10 billion One Euston project in Camden, North London.