Dua Lipa’s got a dirty job on her hands – as she’s having over 500 tonnes of soil excavated to build a mega-basement complete with music studio and swimming pool.
It took the singer over three years to persuade the council to give the mammoth project the green light at her mansion in Hampstead.
The real hard slog is just beginning for her construction team who are ripping up the house and garden – and digging six metres below the surface.
This works out about 1425 cubic metres, equivalent of 503 tonnes of soil and other materials.
The new basement will be 310 square metres – FOUR times the size of the previous 72.5 square metre one.
The star bought the property in January 2020 and put in a planning application to her local council the following year for a ground floor extension and basement with a music studio, pool, gym, cinema and chill-out area.
Dua Lipa ’s got a dirty job on her hands – as she’s having over 500 tonnes of soil excavated to build a mega-basement complete with music studio and swimming pool
It took the singer over three years to persuade the council to give the mammoth project the green light at her mansion in Hampstead
The real hard slog is just beginning for her construction team who are ripping up the house and garden – and digging six metres below the surface (pictured)
In March this year, the council finally approved her plans – but imposed strict conditions under a Section 106 agreement as the construction would have such a significant impact on local residents.
This is after complaints from a local conservation group, which ground the application to a halt, after it complained about the “loss of green space”, “loss of trees”, and “drainage issues”.
So Dua’s design team agreed to build a discreet biodiverse roof garden on top of the basement to make it blend into the garden, which will provide food and habitat for the local wildlife.
She had an audio report for the pool, which says that if her application is successful then the noise from the pool engine room can’t be any higher than 28 decibels, which is roughly the sound of someone softly whispering (25db).
According to the construction management plan, the renovations will take 12 months to complete up to April next year.
Dua has been used to setbacks with the application, as she had to produce three in-depth investigations reports to assess the damage a basement could do to neighbours’ properties, such as subsidence, and a flood risk assessment, as basements are classed as “highly vulnerable”.
According to The Sun, her team told planners: ‘A basement dig would typically have potential for noise and vibration to pass through to neighbouring.
The star bought the property in January 2020 and put in a planning application to her local council the following year for a ground floor extension and basement with a music studio, pool, gym, cinema and chill-out area
‘In this case, as the existing house is completely detached and the dig would be a manual operation, the extent of noise transmission would be mitigated.
‘As a safety measure, movement monitoring would be undertaken to give early warning of any building movement.’
The GRAMMY Award-winning star – who has a reported net worth of £75 million – bought the sprawling property in 2017 when she was just 22 years old.
Last year Dua was given the go ahead but work on the site had to kept to a minimum and equipment must be mounted with ‘anti-vibration isolators’ to avoid disturbing the neighbours.
A source told The Sun last year: ‘Dua’s plans for her house are epic and after four years she has finally started looking for builders to start work on her music studio, pool, gym, cinema and chillout area.
The GRAMMY Award-winning star – who has a reported net worth of £75 million – bought the sprawling property in 2017 when she was just 22 years old
After submitting proposal plans in December 2021 to build a pool, steam room, shower, changing room, relaxation zone, cinema, studio waiting area and lobby, she landed in hot water with conservationists and the local council
‘She has to adhere to some pretty strict agreements because of how much objection there was to her plans over the loss of green space.
‘Her building team will have to keep the sounds of power tools to a whisper and all the equipment must be mounted with anti-vibration insulators.
‘No one should be aware any work is taking place and Dua’s neighbours could kick up a stink if they are. Dua doesn’t want to cause any annoyance and she is looking forward to making her house a home.
‘As a safety measure, movement monitoring would be undertaken to give early warning of any building movement.’
The GRAMMY Award-winning star – who has a reported net worth of £75 million – bought the sprawling property in 2017 when she was just 22 years old.
Last year she was given the go ahead but work on the site had to kept to a minimum and equipment must be mounted with ‘anti-vibration isolators’ to avoid disturbing the neighbours.
A source told The Sun last year: ‘Dua’s plans for her house are epic and after four years she has finally started looking for builders to start work on her music studio, pool, gym, cinema and chillout area.
‘She has to adhere to some pretty strict agreements because of how much objection there was to her plans over the loss of green space.
‘Her building team will have to keep the sounds of power tools to a whisper and all the equipment must be mounted with anti-vibration insulators.
‘No one should be aware any work is taking place and Dua’s neighbours could kick up a stink if they are. Dua doesn’t want to cause any annoyance and she is looking forward to making her house a home.’
