The Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre forms the first phase of a two phase masterplan for the fourth side of the Iroko Housing Co-op square,
completed in 2001 by Haworth Tompkins for Coin Street Community Builders.
Mixed use community building
South Bank, London |
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The Neighbourhood Centre is a mixed-use urban building incorporating a number of inter-linking components.
The components include a 64 place nursery with external playspace; a creche and dedicated baby unit; an out of school activities and family support
space; an entire floor dedicated to learning and enterprise including meeting rooms and conference spaces for community
use and commercial let; a community cafe; a commercial restaurant and food shop; and permanent offices for the client.
The roof of the building has a landscaped terrace with panoramic views across London. |
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A key aim of the project was to explore the architectural form of an ambient urban object, capable of
accommodating or adapting to a number of different uses both now and in the future. This is an inherently sustainable model
for city buildings that do not require a specific form to fulfil their purpose. |
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It is largely a public building, and yet it also forms part of a private garden enclosure and adjoins more understated
residential buildings, and so the issue of announcement and semiotics became a central conversation in the development
of the building elevations. |
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Further to this debate, the importance of an architectural language that would neither be
intimidating nor condescending to a very mixed user group from corporate conference delegates to children from low-income
families became key. |
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Haworth Tompkins collaborated with the artist and colourist Antoni Malinowski in the colour choice for the
multi-coloured main facade, which incorporates solar 'chimneys' to naturally ventilate the building without the need for
opening windows onto the noisy street side.
Antoni Malinowski also completed a series of site specific painted interventions throughout the building, inlcuding the solar chimney spaces, the main stairwell and the foyer. |
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Haworth Tompkins' earlier Iroko housing project forms the other three sides of a courtyard containing a large private garden
for residents. The Neighbourhood Centre addresses this space by screening windows to the openly public functions, such as the
Community Cafe, by the creation of a series of terraced spaces including and external childrens playdeck and deep balconies
serving the second and third floors.
The material palette is the same combination of untreated sustainable Iroko timber and
painted steel as the housing to establish a consistent, more domestic atmosphere on the non-public side. |
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To the eastern gable elevation to Coin Street a heightened version of the Iroko housing's deeply-modelled
brick facade was used, incorporating a different darker brick, a more composed arrangement of openings and a more painterly
used of colour to express the building's public function. The western gable is a temporary party wall to phase two of the
development and is expressed as such using pale concrete blocks.
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The very idea of a building such as this is innovative and there are almost no directly comparable examples
of non-government led community buildings of this ambition and diversity. In technical terms, the solar chimneys are the most
obvious innovation, not because they are technically radical but because the client was prepared to dedicate considerable floor
space (and therefore potential revenue) to the passive ventilation design. |
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The project incorporates a number of other significant sustainable aspects that include a full building management system
(BMS) that turns on the fluorescent lighting only when required and dimming the lights when the natural daylight allows.
Solar hot water is used for WCs and showers and green water is collected for WC flushing. Carefully balanced glazing areas on each elevation
ensure optimum shading and light admittance and any mechanical ventilation in acoustically sensitive rooms overrides the natural
ventilation system only when required. Super insulated facade panels, roof and floors, exposed thermal mass high GGBS (sustainable aggregate)
concrete ceilings and the extensive use of untreated FSC certified timber all add to the sustainable credentials of the project. |
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Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre
Client: Coin Street Community Builders
Value:
£7,200,000
Completion: September 2007
Photographs
Helene Binet
Edmund Sumner
Philip Vile
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Exposed Concrete
Untreated Iroko Timber
Douglas Fir Plywood
Textured Enameled Glass
Granite Tiles
Red Resin
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