This multi-award-winning project represents the latest stage in the development of a series of brownfield sites on London's South Bank by the Coin Street Community Builders.
Social Housing
Coin Street, London |
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The site occupies two very different worlds - the nationally important cultural and tourist centre of the South Bank and the residential neighbourhoods of Coin Street and the Cut. The scheme, won through a limited entry competition, provides 59 dwellings including 32 family houses, the balance of accommodation being made up of a mixture of flats and maisonettes. |
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Urban housing still proves to be something of a paradox - the imperative to create buildings of sufficient scale that can fit comfortably into an exposed urban environment and how this can be reconciled with privacy and domestic scale. On such a prominent site a strong typology was needed, one that could be understood easily by both the public and its residents; a simple form that established very clear signals of public and private but of sufficient presence to maintain the metropolitan buzz. |
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The dwellings are therefore arranged around an open courtyard, a hollow square which allows communal space to be maximised in the form of a large landscaped garden which has absolute privacy and security from the street. The elevations of the houses acknowledge their dual aspect, addressing the public streetscape outside and the private garden very differently. The street facades are expressed as a simple brick screen with deep window reveals, and on the garden side more informal timber cladding has been selected to slowly weather and mature with the landscaping. |
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The scheme embodies many principles of sustainability, both in spatial planning and solar access - each dwelling has roof-mounted solar panels for the production of domestic hot water - and in the specification of insulation levels, ventilation systems and building materials to have the absolute minimum environmental impact. |
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IROKO HOUSE, COIN STREET
Client:
Coin Street Community Builders
Value:
£12,500,000
Completed August 2001 |
Exterior:
Exposed aggregate concrete frame, Handmade facing brick, Powder-coated steel, Natural anodized aluminium, Red cedar timber boarding, Vitex timber boarding, Terne-coated stainless steel roof covering
Materials on public facades reinforce the tough, urban location, but on the private facade materials are softer, and designed to weather naturally.
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