PROJECT REPORT: MIXED USE SCHEMES
he Old Dairy is a mixed-use scheme located in a tight triangular parcel of land tucked away in a private mews, not far from the bustle of King’s Cross station. Its name comes from the now- demolished building it replaces – a defunct 1930s dairy.
T
Covering just 0.2 hectares of land, the project offered multiple challenges, from its constrained size, to site access and services, to the listed structures that enclose it which required careful treatment. Now completed and sold, the project includes two commercial units to the west of the site, and a metal-clad terrace to the east, the latter made up of two houses and 13 apartments all arranged over three storeys. Simon Lilley, director at executive architects Stanhope Gate and Tom Byrne, senior architectural technologist, at the firm, met ADF to discuss how the project’s discreet design tackled a dense context, and how both ends of the Design & Build contract were hampered by that context.
Form
Approaching the scheme from the overlooking St George’s Garden – a former 18th-century graveyard – the industrial- looking zinc-clad homes lie below, the classic London yellow stock bricks of the Grade II listed Regent’s Square rising behind its shifting roofline.
Referencing the original dairy building’s peaked roofscape, the homes required careful design consideration to ensure they fitted harmoniously into these complex as well as compact surroundings. The building’s distinctive envelope displays folded triangular extrusions of interlocking panels intended to reflect the site’s industrial heritage, as well as blend with its leafy context. Making as much use of the tight footprint as possible, the homes offer generous floor to ceiling heights, especially in the lower ground floors, and a range of garden spaces and inset roof terraces. They are punctuated by long windows, resulting from “a highly considered daylighting strategy.” Inside, the interiors – designed by architects 1508 London – continue the stripped back, industrial feel of the building’s exterior. The homes offer a light timber palette with wooden floors throughout and exposed concrete staircases in each of the two townhouses, as well as high levels of discreet glazing – to introduce plenty of light while crucially keeping onlookers’ gazes out.
ADF DECEMBER 2020
WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK An organic feel
The design of this project was initially headed up by another practice, S333, who provided the initial concept and took it through to an approved planning application – originally for two commercial units and five houses. Stanhope Gate were appointed later to revise the project, “changing it within the spirit of what had already been designed,” explains Simon, “but elevating it.”
He tells me that the main design concept remained the same – to retain the character of the site’s former dairy. The Stanhope team however rearranged the plan and achieved new planning permission to increase the site’s density, as well as privacy. To retain a link to the former building’s character, the practice wanted to introduce an “organic feel,” to the design, which is most evident in the “faceted form of the plan,” says Simon. “It really responds to its context, which is very green,” he says. “The vertical nature of the tree trunks for example was an inspiration in the design process, and part of the idea behind the vertical folds in the cladding.”
27
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
