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PROJECT REPORT: RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
BREAK DOWN
The warehouse-inspired design broke the building into two linked volumes, but with a variety of heights to break down the massing
S
unday Mills, in Earlsfield, south west London, is a new iteration of the co- living concept which brings the benefits of shared facilities to the fore, and resolves a site which was a long-running conundrum. Completed in October 2022, this is the first large-scale co-living project in Wandsworth Borough, providing 315 self-contained studios powered completely by low- carbon technologies. But it also has a 35% allocation of locally ‘affordable’ studios, targeted at keyworkers and young people leaving foster care in particular, giving them a rare opportunity to live closer to the centre of the capital and their workplaces, in high-quality homes.
Innovating in a use class which was lacking specific planning policies, Assael Architecture were commissioned to provide a scheme with an unusually high proportion of social and shared spaces and areas, to give residents a variety of ways to interact. Ranging from a roof terrace to a voluminous co-working space and shared kitchen, they were envisioned to create a new type of apartment block that would help avoid the isolation many renters can experience in the metropolis.
The project is operated by Build to Rent
WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK
and co-living specialist Folk, and it’s their second co-living scheme in the capital, the first being the Palm House in Harrow by Hawkins\Brown, completed in 2022. The clients at Sunday Mills (the name is taken from a poem by Louis de Bernières about Earlsfield) were a combination of co- living funders DTZi, and developer Halcyon Development Partners. Assael Architecture was initially engaged to develop a feasibility study for the project in July 2018. The architectural practice had been involved with reviewing options for the site on previous occasions for more traditional residential use, but the constrained, triangular plot, plus flood risk, previous industrial use and access issues – not to mention a nearby travellers’ site – meant it was not pursued at the time. Fast forward to 2024 and now this relatively quiet suburban corner of south west London – where a Thames tributary (the River Wandle, once described as the ‘hardest working river in London’) crosses the railway line east of Wimbledon Park, now contains an important housing milestone. The brownfield site was previously occupied by stacked shipping containers, but had virtually none of
ADF MARCH 2024
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