Lawn Road

Project: 32, Lawn Road, Camden

The site is located within the Belsize Park area of London and covers c.0.25ha. The design for a new 73 unit apartment block replaces a former car park building and a former launderette, most recently used as a community centre. Although flanked by two 15 storey tower blocks, diagonally across from the site on the west side of Lawn Road lies the Isokon flats, designed by the architect Wells Coates in 1934. This is one of the most significant housing schemes of its day and is Grade I listed. The design had to deal with this demanding context to create a high quality building that respects both the adjoining conservation area and the Grade 1 Isokon building. The design began with the idea of creating a building form that took a cue from the Isokon building’s ocean liner analogy, so that it creates a coherent, singular building form that exploits the curved street. The base of the building is therefore formed in a chalky coloured brickwork, which has curved corners and hinges around a central ‘funnel’ (a staircase) and culminates at the northernmost end as a ‘prow,’ expressed as cantilevered, curved balconies akin to that of an ocean liner.

To the street edge, low curved garden walls flowing from the building’s entrances again echo those on the Isokon building. To the rear of a the building, a large communal garden culminates at the prow of the building at a small public space containing a large tree, to provide a much needed green space as a visual amenity to the streetscape.

The use of masonry and large window apertures further picks up on the ‘New London Vernacular’ approach of a restrained, brick architecture that recalls Georgian proportions, while horizontally emphasised balconies reinforce the contemporary ‘hull-like’ quality of the building along the street. The design establishes a simple 5 storey ‘base’ that relates to the context, but with set back ‘attic’ storeys in a visually lighter acrylic render that adds a ‘top’ to the building.

PROJECT DETAILS Client: Status: Contract value:

Fairview Estates (Housing) Ltd In planning -

Planning consultant: Landscape Architect: Transport consultant:

Nathaniel Lichfield & Partners Mark Cooper Associates URS

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Lawn Road

Published on May 28, 2015

jpa / John Pardey Architects

The site is located within the Belsize Park area of London and covers c.0.25ha. The design for a new 73 unit apartment block replaces a former car park building and launderette, most recently used as a community centre. Although flanked by two 15 storey tower blocks, diagonally across from the site on the west side of Lawn Road lies the Isokon flats, designed by the architect Wells Coates in 1934. The design began with the idea of creating a building form that took a cue from the Isokon building’s ocean liner analogy, so that it creates a coherent, singular building form that exploits the curved street. The base of the building is therefore formed in a chalky coloured brickwork, which has curved corners and hinges around a central ‘funnel’ (a staircase) and culminates at the northernmost end as a ‘prow,’ expressed as cantilevered, curved balconies akin to that of an ocean liner.