Wood Wharf will deliver a high-density, sustainable mixed-use residential, commercial and hotel development to a historic Docklands site which currently comprises low-density, vacant or under-used office, industrial and warehouse uses and which is clearly in need of major regeneration.

The proposal will offer a series of tall buildings providing up to 1,668 new residential units of a range of sizes and tenure ranging from studio flats to four-bedroom family units, with approximately 35 per cent comprising intermediate and social rented housing. In addition, more than 450,000m² of commercial floorspace will be delivered by the scheme as well as retail (20,000m²) and leisure, healthcare and community uses (31,300m²), complemented by high quality public open space and new transport infrastructure.

The site is surrounded on three sides by water and the proposed development will maximise this unique water's-edge location by balancing new water-based activities with the preservation and enhancement of the historic dock and ecology of the area, as well as providing new employment opportunities and homes and delivering significant social and economic benefits for the wider community.

The scheme has been conceived as a unique waterside development creating a mixed-use, sustainable community with a new town square, high street and waterfront. The concept is a response to the aspirations of the SPG (Supplementary Planning Guidance) Masterplan principles. The Masterplan envisages a place which is different in character from Canary Wharf yet with the same high quality public realm and the same sense of dynamism to the environment. There was a need to provide continuity with the urban grid of Canary Wharf and, in particular, to recognise the established residential neighbourhood to the east of the site. With a substantial residential population integrated across the whole site, the intention is for Wood Wharf to become a 24-hour-living community occupying an accessible, safe and attractive environment.

The Masterplan strategy encourages strong east-west pedestrian movement through the site, with a high degree of pedestrian and cycling accessibility and no through roads on the site. The proposal also creates a high quality public realm, including a central public open space in the form of a square a new canal and the extension of active watersides.

The development has been designed to bridge and link the predominantly two-storey housing to the east with the commercial development to the west of the site, which rises to 47 storeys. The new community park will be the first major area of public space to be brought to the Isle of Dogs for decades and many of the formerly inaccessible waterside areas of the docklands will be opened up for public use with newly established boardwalks and areas of waterfront parklands.

The design of the office towers offers market footprints and scales which anticipate future demand in the commercial office and financial services sector. A series of new open market and affordable residential units along the length of the southern edge of the site – joining the public realm with the commercial buildings - will also be provided in towers of differing heights and footprints.

The Wood Wharf Masterplan aims to generate a low-energy ecologically aware, high-density urban cluster. A distinctive strategy has been developed for the site based on the expected energy consumption, carbon emissions, integrated renewable energy opportunities and ambient energy resources of the Wood Wharf scheme. The principal component of this strategy is the use of a district cooling system using the thermal capacity of the surrounding dock water and enabling 'free cooling' for a substantial proportion of the year.

The Masterplan framework and supporting materials set out a coherent, integrated development vision for the Wood Wharf site and provide the reference context within which many detailed planning applications for individual buildings as well as public space and infrastructure, can be placed. The outline planning application – submitted in June 2008 and given a resolution to grant planning permission by Tower Hamlets Council in October 2008 – is one of the largest planning applications ever submitted in the UK and the scheme will provide some of the highest density urban live-work space in Europe.