丨英国伦敦丨Levitt Bernstein

Sutherland Road, Waltham Forest

Project Details: A new affordable housing scheme paying homage to the area’s industrial past.

Client: East Thames Housing Group

Construction Value: £14m

Completion: 2017

Location: Waltham Forest

Awards:

Waltham Forest Design Awards 2021: Winner

RIBA Awards 2018, London: Winner

Blueprint Awards 2018, Best Non-Public Project (Residential): Shortlisted

Housing Design Awards 2018, Completed: Shortlisted

Housing Design Awards 2015, Project: Shortlisted

Images: Tim Crocker

Renewables on site

Sustainable drainage

Low energy use

Child friendly design

Enhanced biodiversity

Enhanced public realm

Health and wellbeing

New homes

Dual aspect homes

Social value

Brownfield site

Where we started

Sutherland Road is a new community in Walthamstow, east London, previously occupied by semi-derelict industrial buildings. Following the residential-led redevelopment of other nearby sites, there was an opportunity to continue the regeneration of the area and better serve local residents.

We were invited to work on the scheme by East Thames Housing Group, having previously collaborated with them on Papermill Place, a large affordable housing development over the road. This time, our brief was to provide a mixture of affordable housing tenures, space for a group of local doctors who wanted to set up a new practice, and an attractive landscape to tie these elements together.

The new architecture and landscape combine to create an attractive new development.

We are excited about the improvements this new scheme will bring for the area’s existing residents, providing much needed new homes and a doctors’ surgery.

Trevor Burns, Director of Development, Sales and Asset Management, East Thames Housing Group

The challenge was to create a new, mixed-tenure community that could work with the wildly differing neighbours: muscular enough to sit in a light industrial context, but sensitive enough to work with the smaller houses behind. In addition, the design had to provide a sense of place, and create an identity for an entirely new neighbourhood.

The combination of forms and materials gives the scheme a bold identity

The larger elevation has a distinctive, saw-toothed roof which references the area’s industrial past

The mews homes are clad in red corrugated metal

Design

Designed as a cohesive whole, the scheme provides 59 new affordable homes, a shared communal garden and health centre.

The courtyard form takes aesthetic cues from the industrial setting. The street elevation is wrapped in brick with a ‘random’ pattern of windows and balconies. Regular holes punched through give views of the courtyard, whilst the distinctive, irregular saw-toothed roof creates a sense of individuality. In contrast, the mews houses have a more traditional form, which is offset by the striking red corrugated metal cladding, playing on the industrial context and giving these houses a strong identity. Notably, all homes, whether one or two bedroom apartments or three bedroom mews houses, are affordable and dual aspect.

Ground floor plan

An early elevation sketch

The aesthetic of the new homes on this small site deliberately challenges the traditional vernacular of those nearby, and by doing so, reinvigorates and makes a substantial contribution to the transformation of the area.

Gary Tidmarsh, Chairman

A health centre forms one edge of the new scheme

The varied landscape creates useful and attractive spaces for residents

The homes are located in a light industrial area of Walthamstow, east London. A variety of external environments are provided for residents, including formal lawns, a communal terrace and toddler’s play area. This space is designed to encourage informal use, whilst responding to the site’s industrial heritage by featuring small timber trains sat on inlaid steel ‘tracks’. More widely, the landscape plays a crucial role in unifying the scheme. The red of the mews homes spreads through the central courtyard through the use of innovative recycled glass paving units and various planting species.

Core team

Gary Tidmarsh

Consultant

Lotta Nyman

Associate Director

Kate Digney

Studio Director

Alexis Kalli

Associate