Award Winner for Best Small Housing Development
TIGHT SITE
Collison Place, 43 Manor Road, London N16 5BH
The long thin site of Collison Place was previously occupied by the derelict warehouse of veneered panel and door manufacturers H Shawyer & Sons Ltd. The warehouse had suffered a fire, the site was being squatted by travellers' caravans, and even the brick boundary wall between the site and Abney Park was falling down. Nevertheless, it provided a unique opportunity that Space Homes exploited to the full.
"We set out to create something stylish and uncompromisingly modern, not just in terms of the bold appearance of the development but in the innovative use of space, light and quality materials to create a whole living concept in this remarkable location," explains architect Julian Cowie.
The completed mixed-use development consists of six high-tech studios in a four-storey modernist building (Abney View Studios) and a mews terrace of 11 three-storey houses, stepped to follow the curve of the boundary of what used to be Abney Park Cemetery, a Victorian Non-Conformist burial ground that opened in 1840 and was abandoned about 25 years ago. Now it is a 32-acre nature reserve owned by the London Borough of Hackney and managed by the Abney Park Cemetery Trust. In place of dereliction, there is now lush vegetation, including many mature broadleaved trees, and the park is teeming with wildlife.
A gated entrance off Manor Road leads past Abney View Studios to the paved mews. The living spaces of the two-bedroom houses are open-plan with high ceilings and generous expanses of glazing to create spaces that are flexible and responsive to the living and working requirements of each individual home owner.
Every house has a double-height fully-glazed living space with a sliding door to a stone-paved patio; a galleried kitchen/dining area on the first floor; and a timber-decked covered terrace accessed from the master bedroom on the top floor. High-specification windows from Denmark were used to achieve the large expanses of glass and the high thermal performance required.
All the houses have cabling for home-entertainment systems, and integrated indoor and outdoor lighting is controlled by programmable switches. All that this tight site lacks are garages. There is a parking space outside each house, but no room to turn round in the mews.
Homebuilder: A joint venture between:
SPACE HOMES LIMITED
142 St Mark's Road, Enfield, Middlesex EN1 1BJ
Tel 020 8366 3265
Fax 020 8366 3314
Website: www.space-homes.co.uk
Contact: David Lewin, Director.
Email: david@lwplc.com
PAUL SIMON DEVELOPMENTS LIMITED
The Coliseum, 11 Salisbury Promenade, Green Lanes, London, N8 0RX
Tel 020 8800 1166
Fax 020 8800 2372
Website: www.paulsimonhomes.com
Contact: Simon Oliver, Director.
Email: simonoliver@paulsimonhomes.com
Architects: JULIAN COWIE ARCHITECTS LIMITED
70 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EJ
Tel 020 7253 6333
Fax 020 7253 0048
Contact Julian Cowie, Director.
Email: info@jc-architects.co.uk
Landscape Architects: WATKINS:DALLY
7/9 Tanners Hill, Deptford, London SE8 4PJ
Tel 020 8469 3757
Website: www.wd.noppa-la.co.uk
Contact: Jo Watkins, Director.
Email: jo@watkinsdally.co.uk