Project: Walm Lane Housing, Willesden Green
A new residential building on this prominent site sits within the Mapsebury Conservation Area and opposite the Grade II listed Willesden Green Metropolitan line station in north London. In dialogue with Brent planners, it was felt that this was an apt location for a modest landmark building. The site has a reciprocal relationship with the station being directly opposite the northernmost exit and will complete a small urban cluster around the station and bridge. The massing of the proposal provides a lower element that forms a ‘datum’ in red brick and a central, taller element that addresses the station expressed as a small ‘tower’. The lower parts are designed to reflect the context and so are built in a red brick expressed as brick framed facades, containing balconies and an inner layer of windows and dark panels that appear at high level as a dark zinc attic storey. The tower is therefore conceived as architecturally distinct from the lower background buildings and is carefully proportioned to have elegance and simplicity. It is given richness by the use of a slender and carefully detailed framed balcony screen with white interiors reflecting the white dressings of local Edwardian buildings – this forms a frontage that is then angled to directly address the station. The tower itself is faced in a warm red terracotta cladding, which subtly picks up on the use of this material within the Mapsebury residential area as well as making a more direct connection to the materiality of the station, which is clad in a glazed cream terracotta (fiaence).
The scheme provides a mix of ownerships, with 53 units ranging between 1 bed and 3 bed apartments, capped at the top of the tower with a duplex apartment. At ground floor a new cafe/bistro and community spave is provided facing onto Walm lane. The design proposed not only provides much needed new housing in a highly sustainable location, but also offers the opportunity to bring a high quality piece of architecture – a minor landmark – to this important site and with its feet in history, rises up to be a confident expression of both the past, and the future.
At street level the proposal exploits the small angled group of shop units that sit against the bridge and by introducing a second angled wall on the opposite side containing a coffee shop, creates an angled and dynamic approach to the main entrance and cafe. A freestanding element onto the road announces the name of the building, incised into glazed terracotta panels that again echoes the station opposite.
PROJECT DETAILS Client: Status: Contract value:
Fairview New Homes Ltd. In planning. c. £12M
Planning consultant: Urban Design: Heritage:
RPS Nathaniel Litchfield & Partners Montagu Evans