Social spaces through diversity

It is a bold and ambitious project commissioned by the London Borough of Hackney and represents the best of social housing, said the jury of the Civic Trust Awards 2022 about the building ensemble Taylor Court, Chatto Court & Wilmott Court in London and presented Henley Halebrown with the National Panel Special Award. The award proves that the London-based architecture firm is on the right track with its philosophy. For Henley Halebrown, buildings form the foundation of society: “They are our homes, they provide a setting for the health service, the education of our children and young people, and the arts. Equally they are the instruments of commerce. In each case the architecture is a catalyst for social interaction and personal endeavor. First and foremost, we consider this our responsibility.”

They have once again fulfilled this responsibility on the edge of the post-war Frampton Park Estate in London. In the Taylor Court, Chatto Court and Wilmott Court sections of the estate, 45 new apartments have been built. The development was made possible by the demolition of the former Frampton Arms pub and Lyttelton House – a small building with six apartments that no longer met modern requirements. In their place, Henley Halebrown developed three building complexes that were built at the same time, but responded individually to the context and the required program. They mediate between the post-war estate and the Victorianstreet. This is achieved, among other things, by means of partly porous spatial constellations at first floor level.

The combination of several elements also served as a design impulse for the architects. They worked with two different architectural traditions: one in which the wall serves to delimit spaces in monolithic forms, and the other in which frames are used to create space. Henley Halebrown see the wall itself as a social space and as an active part of an architecture that responds to the community. To this end, they designed loggias and spacious balconies for the residents, for example. It is not only the surroundings, the seasons and the weather that can be experienced in this intermediate space. The layered brick walls also serve as a buffer between the private area of the house and the public area of the district.

The theme of social space and how this can be produced also runs through other aspects of the architecture. Through a diverse selection of different residential typologies, for example, Henley Halebrown sought to promote a sense of belonging and thus also responsibility for one’s own place of residence. In the five-storey buildings Taylor Court and Chatto Court, the two lower floors are occupied by street-level townhouse apartments, while the upper floors are occupied by duplex maisonettes. The two buildings are connected on the first floor via an entrance portal under an open round arch. This creates interesting views of the adjoining quarter and enables a clear address to be created.

The diversity on the inside contrasts with a uniform design on the outside. Henley Halebrown used handmade brick and red pigmented rendered mortarfor all three buildings. Despite the spatial distance between the Taylor Court/ChattoCourt and Wilmott Court ensemble, the buildings are recognizable as a unit thanks to their design signature. The planners chose subtle details as a reminiscence of the Hackney district. These include, for example, the aforementioned arched bridge between Taylor Court and Chatto Court on the former site of the Frampton Arms pub. Furthermore, the wedge-shapedfloor plan of the Wilmott Court building results from the historical curvature of the street. This picks up on the urban structure and improves the legibility of the building.

The design quality goes hand in hand with affordable housing prices. This was made possible by Hackney Council’s ambitious housing program to build hundreds of new council homes. No government funding was available for this. Instead, the entire project was financed through the direct sale of some of the apartments. This innovative, non-profit-oriented concept and the high-quality spaces will hopefully inspire not only the jury of the Civic Trust Awards, but also the entire population in the future.

More social housing: the architecture studio Atelier Archiplein has built a block of ten social housing units on behalf of the Nicolas Bogueret Foundation in Geneva.