丨英国伦敦丨Henley Halebrown

architects Henley Halebrown

Arnold Road London 2016–

The scheme commissioned by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets creates 62 affordable homes in two mid-rise apartment buildings. 75% are family three and four-bedroom homes and 80% dual aspect. The design of each apartment and private balcony establishes a real parity between inside and outside space which is difficult to achieve without a house and garden and a very rare commodity in multistorey “mass” housing.

The design proposes two heavy masonry buildings surrounded by interconnecting courtyards and gardens that the buildings shape

Model of south building - its heavy masonry façades incorporate recessed balcony terraces. Each apartment is planned around one of these terraces

The design breaks what might have been one long block into two buildings permitting morning and afternoon light to penetrate between the buildings

Together the buildings frame an entrance courtyard designed to encourage residents to meet and talk, and children to play together

Physical models were used to study the character of the interconnecting courtyards and gardens

The plan maximizes the number of dual aspect flats within an optimum repeating floorplate to simplify the design and construction

All 62 apartments are planned around a terrace like a courtyard house. The terraces characterize the strong connection each apartment has with the “outside world”

Brick and precast concrete façades mirror the monumental Victorian engineering of the adjacent railway viaduct

Ground floor studio workspace activates and animates the street frontages of the buildings

Technical

Appointment: 2016

Area: 8,000m

2

Budget: £18.5 million

Client: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

Landscape Architect: Vogt

Planning Consultant: Treanor Consulting

Acoustic Engineer: Max Fordham LLP

Structural Engineer: Price and Myers

Project Manager: Potter Raper Partnership

Awards

Housing Design Awards, Project Category, (Shortlisted) 2020