Camden Goods Yard

CAMDEN GOODS YARD

DECEMBER 2017

Camden Council granted planning permission to Camden Goods Yard at the end of November, voting unanimously in favour of the scheme. The extensive development reinvents an existing Morrisons supermarket and car park on Chalk Farm Road and in close proximity to the Roundhouse and Camden Locks. The project will deliver 573 new homes of mixed tenure, including nearly 40% affordable homes.

Niall McLaughlin Architects designed the mixed-use building marking the main point of access to the Camden Goods Yard site off Chalk Farm Road. It incorporates an existing petrol filling station into a mixed-use building that accommodates workspace alongside retail, a cafe, restaurant and winter garden.

The shop units are placed between heavy brick piers with riveted steel beams above, referencing the language of the ‘Great Wall of Camden’ that once stood in its place and the historic industrial structures nearby. At the corner, the building is a celebration of public activity, enlivened by the inhabitants of its cafes and restaurants, and a winter garden at the top level. The adjacent office accommodation has a vitreous and delicate outer facade with a layered and dynamic inner skin offering depth, texture and changing transparency.

The project is a collaboration with Allies and Morrison, who are the overall masterplan architect and, together with Piercy & Company, designers of the individual buildings.

CATHERINE HUGHES BUILDING PLANNING APPROVAL

MAY 2017

Our new student accommodation scheme for Somerville College, has been awarded planning approval unanimously by Oxford City Council. The project, known as the Catherine Hughes Building, will provide 68 bedrooms, allowing the College to accommodate all their undergraduates on site. This is our third building for Somerville College, further to our work on the ROQ student housing and the extension to the Philip Dowson designed Wolfson building.

The new building has a frontage on to Walton Street, with a Graduate Reading Room at ground floor level. The use of red brick will reflect the neighbouring buildings, with articulated brickwork elements around generous windows to provide a rhythm to the façade. Framed setbacks at third floor level allow the new building to align with key levels on the adjacent Penrose Building and to provide variety to the roof line. Internally, bedrooms are arranged in to clusters with kitchens and circulation spaces utilising direct and borrowed natural light and forming focal points for social activity.

Enabling works, involving the demolition of existing buildings, are due to commence in the next few months, with the main construction expected to start on site at the beginning of 2018.