Acquisition | Feasibility | Planning | Design | Construction | Development Management

This was a brownfield site located in East London, Leyton. The site used to a pipe bending factory nestled amongst Victorian terrace houses on all sides, but was left in disuse for over 10 years prior to our intervention. Previous consented proposals included children’s play centre as well as temporary container-style hostel accommodation but none of the schemes took off.

Our brief was to assess the planning viability of changing the site’s use from Commercial to Residential, and also the feasibility of achieving 5 private houses on site before advising our clients on acquisition.

During the pre-application stage, we re-interpreted the Local Planning Authority’s recommendation to provide 70sqm of private garden per dwelling unit, and convinced the LPA to accept a large communal garden instead which yielded 6 new dwellings on site.

The site is awkwardly shaped, overlooked on all sides with little functional connection with its residential neighbours. It was hardly a promising setting for new family homes: the loss of privacy, the restricted access to local amenities, the lack of direct access to neighbours. The site felt cut-off from its neighbourhood in all senses, and it was a challenge to imagine new arrivals settling in and becoming a part of the social fabric.

We felt that a large shared garden offers superior utility and flexibility compared to oversized and underused individual private gardens. Rather than being compartmentalised within their curtilages, a generous, well-appointed and jointly maintained shared amenity can bring about serendipitous socialising opportunities, and becomes a focal point for the micro-community that we are creating. In doing so, we created a micro-culture that emerges from the residents within our site, and the interplay between our residents and the other surrounding neighbours who front onto our development forms the bridge that brings everyone together.

A sympathetic grid was devised from the surrounding geometry, which was stepped to create a rhythm that resonates with the established timbre of its context. The provision of front and rear private gardens, along with full height openings, create opportunities for a dual-aspect approach to configuring living spaces. Oblique windows on the first floor were calculated to offer a dynamic view of the sky, but also to minimise overlooking. Where possible, all horizontal exterior surfaces have been considered for maximum solar gain in the winter months.

The facade materials comprise of the durable wire-cut black bricks to the base, and the softer slow-grown timber cladding to the upper levels which weathers naturally to a sliver/grey tone to complement the bricks.

We named the new access road Elizabeth Mews, but with the population trend of our micro-community, the delighted residents have playfully suggested renaming it Baby Mews!