Plans to redevelop Battersea Power Station won the backing of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, it was announced yesterday.

The proposed £5.5 billion project would see about 3,700 homes built alongside offices, shops and restaurants on the 40-acre site by the River Thames in south-west London.

Cabe, the government's agency for architecture and urban design, praised architect Rafael Vinoly's "intelligent and well-resolved" designs and supported the planning application currently lodged with Wandsworth Council.

The agency also raised a number of issues, including potential problems of overshadowing and the need to ensure flats on lower levels get enough light.

Diane Haigh, Cabe's director of design review, said: "In many ways this has been a model process.

"The scheme was brought to us at a very early stage, and both the developer and the architect have been very open to the panel's comments."

The power station, which stopped producing electricity in 1983, became famous when it featured on the front cover of Pink Floyd's 1977 album Animals.

Under the proposals the historic building will become home to a conference centre and its four famous chimneys will be restored.

Two turbine halls and the station's control rooms will be open to the public and a six-acre riverside park will be developed on the riverside north of the building. Councillors are currently expected to make a decision about the project in late July.