Architect pH+ has won approval for two housing towers on a former gasholder site in Enfield, north London

The practice said all 182 homes in the Station Road development, for City & Suburban Homes, will be dual aspect and that the scheme has been designed to be built using modular units fabricated off-site.

The ‘high-density living’ proposal, which also includes commercial space and public, shared and private amenity spaces, was conceived to be dissembled and reused with non-loadbearing internal walls allowing layouts to be ‘re-arranged in future retrofits’.

Each tower features triple-height cut-outs containing children’s play space and communal areas for residents. The design also proposes green spaces on the rooftops within the extension of the buildings’ exoskeleton.

Work is expected to start on site in 2023.

The scheme was a truly collaborative process. With extensive stakeholder consultation, the scheme successfully united a series of complex challenges to deliver high-quality homes with innovative integrated amenity. A new publicly accessible terraced landscape and podium park, placed in the centre of the proposal and connecting to the extended site masterplan, provides a permeable space where commercial activity, access to the residential entrances and residential amenity space can exist together providing an active space for residents and the wider community.

The entirety of the landscaped realm has been designed as one large rain garden, which performs at first principle by acting as an attenuation facility.

Building on our experience with achieving 100 per cent dual aspect units, the aim was to create a flexible living space which could accommodate an extension of the home and achieve 100 per cent dual aspect within a tower typology.

This included rethinking traditional tower building layout and form to maximise living spaces and aspects. The project’s ambition was to deliver layers of play space without impacting the developable footprint.

The scheme proposes a series of strategically positioned triple-height cut-outs within the upper and mid-level floorplates provide door-stop child play space and communal amenity for the residents while also creating an interesting building profile when viewed from key points in the wider context.

Rooftop amenity enclosed within the extension of the exoskeleton provides green space for residents with views towards London. The development far exceeds GLA requirements achieving an Urban Greening Factor of 0.44 through the inclusion of plants, 76 new trees, shrubbery, and vegetation.

Living rooms and balconies of the apartments occupy the corners of the winged floorplate, maximising true dual-aspect living accommodation across the scheme and ensuring an efficient building form. Winter gardens could be adapted to become an extension of the internal space or retained as amenity giving the user the ability to evolve within their space and allow flexibility of internal living arrangements.

Looking at the wider context, we believe that projects delivered in this manner could liberate large areas of land currently occupied by underused and poorly maintained play space. Integration of such spaces as part of the built form ensures maintenance falls under the responsibility of the building management, and safely surveilled doorstop play is offered to all residents.

The scheme has a ‘fabric-first’ approach to energy performance and human comfort. As a design team we considered key details about the site and the Whole Life-Cycle Carbon (WLC) principles that would inform the development of our proposals.

It was not feasible to reuse and retain the existing gasholders

Due to the condition of the existing gasholder structure on the site, it was not feasible to reuse and retain the existing structures. However, the following WLC reduction principles were proposed: The building design favours standardisation and modularity through the repetition of the unit types, floorplates and stacking services, with a material selection that supports reuse. The structural strategy for the building was designed so that, as much as possible, internal walls were non-loadbearing so that internal layouts could be rearranged in future retrofits.

A Green Procurement Plan has been developed for the project that defines the guidelines for the contractor to implement a local sourcing strategy for materials, staff, and subcontractors for the project.

Waste will be minimised with the use of modern methods of construction (MMC) in the design wherever possible – the superstructure will be MMC along with the glazing system and façade substrate. Fabrication efficiencies will be maximised through standardisation and modularity in the design, which will be explored further as the proposals develop. Through the limited number of unit typologies, the opportunity for off-site modularisation is maximised, reducing waste and time-on-site, while improving quality.

The circular economy principles focus on more efficient use of materials, which in turn will lead to carbon and financial efficiencies. The use of off-site construction will allow for further control of materials and waste.

Tags Enfield Gasholders Housing modular construction pH+ Architects

Sign in or Register a new account to join the discussion.

We use cookies to personalize and improve your experience on our site. Visit our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy to learn more. You can opt out of some cookies by adjusting your browser settings. More information on how to do this can be found in the cookie policy. By using our site, you agree to our use of cookies.