5. HOUSING
The bulk of the fabric of the city is housing, and the history of housing, if you read Stefan Muthesius’s book The History of the English Terrace House is all about builders and developers and the various typologies developed to answer specific housing needs rather than the artistic endeavours of particular architects.
Housing, by its very nature, is self effacing, part of the addictive fabric of townscape, more building than architecture. There is a need in housing for more decent, ordinary, straight forward building. At its best, it’s building with an architectural quality rather than being architecture. Lethaby warned that “it was the gravest mistake to foster the idea that there was a sort of building called ‘architecture’ superior in kind to ordinary building; the serious problem was how this ordinary building might be well done, for without that as a basis no higher building or ‘architecture’ would be possible”.
We can help our clients in the UK on particular and specialist projects where our collective talents, collaborative approach and proven design ability add considerable value by unlocking potential and delivering projects more imaginatively on a range of regeneration and mixed use, high density developments. Key examples are the award winning Finland Quays, the housing at Drapers Yard,Thurrock; Celtic Gateway, Cardiff and The Marina Quarter, Nansha Bay, China.
FINLAND QUAYS, LONDON – Housing project that is a re-interpretation of the linked mansion blocks characteristic of south London.