The upscale community of West London’s Maida Vale is know for being the home of some of the BBC radio’s studios, Little Venice, tree lined streets, red brick mansions, and now a new housing development the will have it’s own drone delivery dock.  The name of the new development is Lyons Place, and according to it’s website, “Inspired by the craft and creativity of its surroundings, Lyons Place is a collection of beautifully designed townhouses, apartments and penthouses.”  One of the features being offered is that the buildings will have a rooftop access for residents to receive deliveries via drones.

The property is being designed and built by renowned architect Sir Terry Farrell who lives near by.  Sir Farrell and his firm, Farrells, are known for their postmodern urban designs.  Lyons Place promises to be just that.  The available spaces will include 5 townhouses with terraces and patio gardens, a building with 24 private apartments, and 47 individual homes.  Each building will have a rooftop “vertiport” for drone landings.  Lyons Place is set to be the first housing scheme in London to have this feature.  While being designed and built by Farrells, it is under the property development and investment company Almacantar.  Since 2010, under the leadership of Chief Executive Mike Hussey, Almacantar has acquired and developed over 1.5 million sq ft throughout the London area.  To complete the Loyns Place drone project Almacantar reached out to drone vertiport specialists, Skyports

Skyports is a UK based company that has been buying up rooftop spaces in cities like London, Los Angeles, and Singapore to make room for their drone docking stations called vertiports.  According to their website, “Skyports secures, designs, builds, owns and operates passenger and cargo vertiports enabling safe and efficient flight operations within urban and suburban environments,” as well as, “develops, implements and operates end-to-end drone deliveries overcoming inefficiencies associated with traditional transportation methods.

The vision shared by Farrells, Almacantar, and Skyports is that drones being able to make deliveries smoothly from one rooftop to another is the way of the future.  Some countries like Finland, Switzerland, and Dubai are already making use of regular drone deliveries.  Meanwhile, countries like Britain and the United States are still waiting to overcome the logistical obstacles of drone deliveries in urban environments.  But once these logistical issues are overcome drone veritports could become as numerous and common as regular parking lots.

That is why Almacantar chose to plan ahead when contracting Farrells and Skyport to work on Lyons Place.  They want to build homes that will be stunning and practical.  A home that will fit the lifestyle of it’s community, and that includes making a drone friendly environment.  Construction on Lyons Place is set to be completed by the end of this summer.  It’s only a matter of time before more communities will be embracing similar design ideas.

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