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Another Coin Street development by the same architects as for Broadwall, this time as a redevelopment of the old OXO building (whose idiosyncratic tower remains). The cherry of this 15,000 sq. m. mixed-use development is the riverside restaurant, bar and brasserie on the top floor of this reinvented 1928 building. It’s rather ‘late 1990’s yuppie’ (managed by Harvey Nichols), but the views from the terrace are superb, even if its north-facing aspect makes it less than the warmest place in town.
The ambience of the restaurant is affected by overhead motorised fins which change the ceiling colour and alter both lighting and acoustics. Other floors include 78 apartments designed for the Coin Street Housing Association.
Coin Street Community Builders are the non-profit making developer behind this scheme of 27 units, now in the hands of a housing cooperative. Eleven of the homes are for families, in 3 storey units; walk-up flats are at the southern end of the row in a 4 storey block (no lift); other small flats are concentrated in the 9 storey northern tower. The street side has well-handled access and nominal buffering from passers-by. The garden side is stridently articulated with flues (additional winter heating) and the whole thing has an evident Danish inspiration that is refreshing on the British scene. The scheme is worth comparing with the Barcelona-cum-Georgian enthusiasms of the more recent Haworth Thompkins scheme (see below). The mix of family terrace units and towered apartments is comparatively rare in an era when we are told that the white middle-classes with children are deserting central London in droves (a Richard Rogers alarm call).
This Coin Street community scheme sits above an underground car park and bounds the block with tight terracing that forms (or will do when the fourth side is complete) a private inner sanctum for tenants. The model is vaguely Holland Park from the early C19, as reinvented at Milton Keynes, now translated and tightened up for this urban setting, and given a rather Spanish-inspired aesthetic. The project provides 59 dwellings and includes 32 family houses which can each accommodate up to 8 persons; the balance of accommodation is made up of a mix of flats and maisonettes. All dwellings are for rent and are managed by a housing co-op formed by the residents. Access is via a common balcony. A simple series of planning principles have been established: all houses have street level entrances and private gardens opening on to the communal courtyard; all flats and maisonettes have large balconies and each of the bedrooms overlooking the courtyard has a balcony. Bricks are used externally and timber within the courtyard. The buildings have been designed on low energy and sustainable design principles with the overriding objective of producing elegant buildings that are simple for the occupants to use. Passive solar panels have been included in the scheme to provide domestic hot water for each dwelling. A lightweight, low embodied energy solar panel on each roof preheats the water to the hot water tank in the house.