November 11, 2016
 |
| Glossy yellow glazed bricks at Peabody's new estate in south London |
A summery, shiny splash of bright yellow. Glossy, volcanic reds and oranges glint in the sunlight. These warm Mediterranean-style colours line the entrance halls in Peabody’s new development in south London. And they are built in a surprisingly conventional material: brick.
The St John’s Hill estate, between Wandsworth Common and Clapham Junction, was built in the Thirties. It wasn’t up to scratch and so has been completely torn down and started again. The architects, Hawkins Brown, wanted to rebuild the site paying attention to its surroundings and its heritage.
 |
| Townhouses at Peabody's estate in south London |
“We wanted to give each of the individual buildings its own identity,” says architect Iain Cochran. So each one is built in a different brick: one is blackish-grey, with an industrial feel; the new town houses are “next to the Edwardian terraced houses, and we pulled features from those and reapplied them”. The traditional red brick with yellow around the windows has been flipped to make a creamy, soft facade with a red trim.
The brightly glazed bricks also act as a navigational tool, a way for visitors to find their way through the huge estate. “These are all very simple touches, but we have drawn from the context and reapplied it in a modern way,” says Cochran.
This thoughtful reimagining of the estate has won the award for best large housing development at this year’s Brick Awards, which celebrates the best, most creative designs made in the UK using bricks.
 |
| A public artwork made from bricks by artist Rodney Harris |
The architects have also drawn from the community and history of the estate with a public artwork made from bricks by artist Rodney Harris. High up on the exterior of the buildings are sculptures in relief that represent memories of residents of the estate in the Thirties: a uniform, a pair of pinafores, a sink, and gardening tools, harking back to when it was filled with allotments during the Second World War.
In the second phase of the building, to be completed by 2018, the artworks will reflect current residents. “It’s like a history of the estate in masonry,” says Cochran.
This project, and other winners, show how bricks can be used to soften the architecture and make it welcoming.
Other winners of the Brick Awards include Newport Street Gallery, Damien Hirst’s new exhibition space in south London, which recently won the Stirling Prize. The 37,000 sq ft gallery is made up of almost an entire street of listed Victorian industrial buildings that had been carpentry and scenery painting workshops for West End theatres. The building was conceived by architecture firm Caruso St John. The industrial buildings are bookended by new structures, one with a spiky sawtooth roof.
 |
| Hindmans Yard CREDIT: EDMUND SUMNER |
Another winner is Hindman’s Yard, a housing development in East Dulwich, south London. Designed by architecture firm Foster Lomas, the exterior bricks are arranged in a dog-tooth detail, adding a crunchy texture.
“The versatility of brick affords a high degree of creativity in building design,” says Keith Aldis, chief executive of the Brick Development Association, which sponsors the awards. “The contrast that can be achieved by displaying different facets of brick, creating a tactile environment; ‘hit and miss’ patterned brickwork that is projected and recessed; and the many variants of size, shape and colour that entirely change the material’s aesthetic, all contribute to a palette suitable for a wide range of design styles.”
A tiny house built on an infill site in Forest Gate, east London, has won the award for best individual housing development. Blackish-blue bricks were used to create texture using a sawtooth design to soften the walls. They were installed vertically, and appear three dimensional, zigzagging around the house.
 |
| A detail of bricks at the Courtyard House |
David Pierce from the architecture firm that built it, Dallas Pierce Quintero, said: “We wanted the house to feel as big as possible, and we did that by using the same wall finish outside as in. It makes the living room feel twice as big because outside feels inside.”
The bricks they used, a Staffordshire blue brick, have a slightly glossy finish. They change colour over the course of the day as the light hits them in different ways, unlike a matt red brick.
 |
| Inside the Courtyard House CREDIT: DAVID BUTLER |
“We softened it,” Pierce says. “People say it looks like a woven basket and this makes it feel tactile. Normally bricks are geometric, but this is organic and soft looking.”
The bricks sit alongside the harsh lines of a resin floor and visible joists; its owner Tom Gildon, who commissioned the building, had been living in Trellick Tower, a brutalist masterpiece in west London.
Installing the bricks “was the one pretty thing we did in the house that was purely decorative”, says Pierce. “It’s ironic as it’s such a hard material. But it’s always the first thing people touch when they come into the room.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/uk/not-your-average-semi-detached-the-wildest-and-weirdest-homes-bu/
No comments:
Post a Comment