colindale residential quarter
DESCRIPTION
Colindale has been identified as one of the most significant areas for growth and regeneration in London – it is a classic North London suburb that lacks real cohesiveness and identity. At the heart of Colindale lies the Northern line tube station, which adjoins the former Victorian hospital site. The two blocks facing the street are courtyard in form, while the third block straddles the rear of the site. The architectural approach seeks to retain a memory of the brick industrial units, abstracted into brick planar elements – these are seen as abstracted Tetris-like coloured planes with cut-out elements that float above a lighter base. Within the brick plane, an inner, domestic layer of timber and glazing is revealed. Steel balconies are inserted or applied and zinc-clad oriels counterpoint the elevational composition.TRANSCRIPT
Project: Colindale Residential Quarter
Colindale has been identified as one of the most significant areas for growth and regeneration in London – it is a classic North London suburb that lacks real cohesiveness and identity. At the heart of Colindale lies the Northern line tube station, which adjoins the former Victorian hospital site.
John Pardey Architects were appointed as lead design architects working alongside Barton Willmore to develop the masterplan for this 5.2 Ha mixed use scheme. A new piazza addresses Colindale Avenue with a redesigned tube station, an Aparthotel and retail units. A central avenue links the Piazza to a central square that wraps and addresses a retained listed Victorian hospital building. A college building and residential blocks also address the avenue offering an urban frontage whilst shielding raised courtyard gardens.
PROJECT DETAILS
One of the ambitions in designing a large scale new residential quarter of mainly low cost apartments was to create variety and individuality in the architectural language while achieving an overall uniformity, an identifiable urban village or neighbourhood with a particular sense of place.
The architecture offers different faces to the public and private realms – street elevations are animated with large scale openings, a varying parapet and roof line and projections in a masonry outer wall, while the courtyards are given a finer grain of modularised timber and composite cladding panels, projecting balconies and full height glazing.
Apartments are arranged in a necklace of single-aspect units to form L-shaped blocks which interlock to enclose landscaped podium courtyards above ground level parking.
Ranging from 3 to 10 storey point block, the buildings are clad in white render, cream or red brickwork above a black brick plinth so that the scheme has variety yet retains coherence. Building heights rise up from south to north maximizing solar access to the courtyard gardens and are formed from
apartments clustered around cores offering the opportunity for many to be dual aspect and encouraging a sense of community.
The design provides each apartment bock with a strong individual identity and sense of ownership for residents inspired by the Oxbridge student house typology of rooms clustered around a common stair or courtyard. Here, the house becomes the block and individual rooms become apartments.
Barnet Council is promoting the scheme as a benchmark for sustainable design in Colindale. Biomass district heating, audited construction methods and sustainable transport are included.
Client: Fairview New Homes Ltd.Status: Completion 2014Contract value: c. £100,000,000.00
Structural Engineer: Scott WilsonM+E Engineers: Scott WilsonMasterplanners: Barton Willmore