99 Barking Road demonstrates how family and community-friendly homes can be provided in the most urban of locations, and is a symbol for future regeneration. At the northern end of the road, almost adjacent to Canning Town flyover, architect Stock Woolstencroft has created a scheme comprising 100 homes in a series of distinct blocks with high quality communal amenity space around a series of compact courtyards, all for client One Housing Group.
Just over 90% of the apartments are affordable and range from one-bedroom to four-bedroom properties. Although the location is thoroughly urban, each home has private outside space, in the form of either gardens for family homes, recessed balconies for units fronting noisier road locations, projected balconies to the quieter rear of the site, and larger protected roof terraces for family units.
Unusually, the scheme includes shared amenity space to encourage community integration, with a compact courtyard providing a baseball court, seating areas for communal use, and two quiet rooftop gardens.
A mature and protected London plane tree was a feature of the site and has shaped the development, which is designed as a series of individual buildings that appear to ‘slide’ past one another to frame the tree.
The first building, fronting Barking Road, responds to its urban environment with a bold framing to a vertical ‘fin’ treatment. The second structure is described by the architect as a ‘gold box’, being sheathed in metal cladding laid out in repeating strips to form a light-reflecting backdrop to the dappled greys and greens of the London plane tree. The third structure has a more neutral render finish. The fourth reflects the metal cladding of the second structure, and the final building has a strong brick façade.
The scheme was designed to achieve a ‘very good’ rating under the EcoHomes environmental assessment system, and took account of security through the Secured by Design principles.
ARCHITECT:
Stock Woolstencroft
Address:
The Pump House
19 Hooper Street
London
E1 8BU
Tel: 020 7264 8600
Fax: 020 7264 8700
Website: www.stockwool.co.uk
Contact: Tracey Bishop
HOMEBUILDER:
One Housing Group
Address:
100 Chalk Farm Road
Camden
London
NW1 8EH
Tel: 020 7428 4107
Fax: 020 7428 4297
Website: www.onehousinggroup.co.uk
Contact: Fiona Crook
