A perfectly genius proposal. The design for the redevelopment of Holy Trinity School is pioneering and cleverly tackles the need to provide more housing and more primary school places. Boris Johnson Mayor of London
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About us
We are a start-up with a story. Founded in 1972 and re-established in 2012, our practice brings together the entrepreneurship of Rock Townsend’s founding partners with the enterprising attitude of a new generation of designers. Our studio workshop is a place of craft, rigour and exploration. Young architects are given early responsibility, acting as apprentices to a connected way of thinking. The focus is on collective effort, an internal ethos reflected in our relationships with outside collaborators. We try to consider each project from beyond the usual perspectives of architectural practice and, alongside our creative role, engage fully with the technical and commercial aspects of the design journey. We strongly believe that architects are uniquely placed to enrich the process of making buildings; applying imagination and critical thinking to resolve practical problems into fitting solutions. Our intent is to make apt buildings and active places which embody a long-term view about contextual change.
Architecture & Design
The resulting work has spirit and endures, not because it expresses our own architectural authorship, but because it carries the signature of the users, clients and communities to whom it belongs.
The Old School Exton Street London SE1 8UE 020 7261 9577 studio@rocktownsend.co.uk
rocktownsend.co.uk
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Our experience
Residential
From small infill sites to large mixed-use developments, we use our creative skills, technical knowledge and commercial awareness to design housing solutions that are apt and desirable. We try to challenge preconceptions in a constructive way to maximise the value we deliver to our clients and to residents, designing places that are socially, environmentally and economically sustainable in the long-term.
Commercial
Our approach to workplace design starts with understanding the client’s unique brand. Whether for new build headquarters, refurbishments or temporary installations, we collaborate closely with clients and users to integrate their culture into every aspect of the working environment, thinking holistically to gain best value from the budget and achieve the right balance between initial capital investment and ongoing lifecycle costs.
Education
Our experience ranges from individual primary and secondary schools to programmes of multiple projects for sponsors, local authorities and central government. We listen carefully to each school to understand their pedagogy, culture and aspirations and adapt our approach so that our designs meet specific requirements, support different ways of working and make a positive impact on learning outcomes.
Further Education
Whether designing general teaching accommodation or highly specialised training facilities, we work collaboratively with all stakeholders to develop bold and sometimes unexpected solutions that are unique to each college. We aim to create inspiring and active places that meet specific user needs, minimise ongoing operational costs and foster a sense of pride and community within the college and the local area.
Community
Our experience ranges from stand-alone visitor centres to multi-purpose, innercity youth and community facilities. Our design approach balances the need for financial viability, in terms of construction and sustainable long-term operation, with the opportunity to create an appropriate landmark in the local area; one that is welcoming, inspiring and meets the specific needs of the community it serves.
Higher Education
We have worked with several leading universities to maximise the effectiveness of their estates, providing high quality facilities that support changing learning styles and meet rising student expectations. Our approach combines practicality and vision, thinking constructively about how to make every space work efficiently and effectively whilst using design to celebrate and enhance the university’s unique identity.
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Why work with us? ....how our approach comes together
Apt Buildings & Active Places Workshop culture: Collective effort + Craft
We have a unique workshop culture
Social integrity: Sustainability
Of the many lessons Rock Townsend has for the industry, it is that a practice can be caring, socially aware and innovative all at the same time. Building Design Magazine
Suitability + Innovation
Constructive thinking :
We love to draw and to make things. This is how we explore ideas and engage our clients and collaborators in a collective way of working. Our workshop is a place where all contributors can come together to engage in this process and develop fitting and often unexpected solutions. We’re passionate about learning Our passion for design is shared with an equal passion for learning. We use this to evolve design excellence in our sectors, listening carefully to user requirements and engaging with all influences on a project to understand how our creative contribution can make a project a success. We build relationships that deliver real value Successful projects are often the result of a close-knit team working towards shared goals. As a medium-sized practice we offer significant director involvement, an energetic team of young architects and the team consistency that builds relationships and delivers most value. We design places that feel good We believe that successful architecture creates places that not only work, but feel good. We think carefully about the identity of the buildings we design, how they support the comunities they serve and how they provide the ‘spark’ which makes a place enjoyable and sustainable.
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Residential
Salisbury Road B3 Living and Hill Group
This project exemplifies what can be achieved through the creative redevelopment of challenging sites and the positive contribution that the sensitive densification of suburban areas can have on local neighbourhoods. Rock Townsend, in partnership with B3 Living and Hill Group, transformed a former suburban industrial site into 52 new homes, challenging the assumed density of the local area while making a positive contribution to the public realm. This was the result of a carefully negotiated building height that made semi-basement parking viable and in turn released generous central amenity space. The 4 to 5-storey development strengthens the sense of place by committing a significant portion of the site to landscape that connects to the wider area. Simple, robust detailing and well-proportioned windows create a high quality, light-filled building that makes the flats and communal areas feel more spacious.
Location: Construction Cost: GIA: RT Start: RT End:
Hoddesdon ÂŁ7.4m 4,000 sqm 09 / 2012 11 / 2015
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The adoption of a central corridor access provides an efficient net to gross ratio and allows the entry stair and lift cores to be generous in both width and volume. This naturally-lit transition from public to private realm maintains a visual connection with the landscaped courtyard whilst the triple-height volume with cantilevered stair creates a dramatic space that enhances the sense of arrival.
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Holy Trinity
A perfectly genius proposal. Boris Johnson Mayor of London
London Diocesan Board for Schools
With no funding available and increasing demand for primary school places in the Borough, the design for Holy Trinity Primary School is a bold, metropolitan piece of architecture that completes the surrounding urban block whilst maximising outside space for the school. The building provides a two form entry primary school built at ground and first floor levels with a doubleheight external play deck at second floor level, above which spans a block comprising 101 new apartments to cross-subsidise the school’s expansion programme. This arrangement allows the roof of the school to be used as outdoor learning landscape and for the apartments to benefit from uninterrupted views across London. Combined with the ground floor amenity space this arrangement provides the school with external play space equal to approximately 95% of the site area. With a design and engagement period of over 3 years, this air-rights development grew in scale as funding diminished and greater cross-subsidy was sought. What began as a replacement school masterplan quickly became an innovative new mixed-use solution appropriate to its urban context. The project is the result of joined up thinking about how to deliver much needed school places and new homes in the capital.
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Location: Construction Cost: GIA: RT Start: RT End:
Dalston, London £28m 3,260 sqm (school) / 101 units 10 / 2009 11 / 2013
Private sale
Apartments Open air
Play Deck Two-form entry
School
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Larden Road Genesis Housing Group
Location: Construction Cost: GIA: RT Start: RT End:
Acton ÂŁ71m 454 units / 6,742 sqm office 12 / 2005 10 / 2009
The Larden Road project involved a major mixed-use redevelopment of a former factory site, integrating it back into the surrounding residential neighbourhood and delivering 454 mixed tenure homes, 6,000sqm of office space, nine artist units, a cafÊ, a doctor’s surgery, retail units and amenity space. The site was purchased with planning consent but the design required significant re-ordering to achieve the desired mix and size of units and a series of alterations to address matters of buildability and value. Through a collaborative working arrangement with two other architectural practices we were able to twin track the planning and working drawing packages to shorten the programme by five months, enabling an earlier start on site and reduced borrowing costs. Our elements of the work included the refurbishment and conversion of an original Prestolite factory building into apartments, two new apartment buildings either side of the factory and a terrace of houses to complete the existing street scene. The final development provides areas of individual character within an overall masterplan arranged around high quality central landscape.
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Trout Road
Homestead Lane
Paradigm Housing
Rockwell Ltd
This development forms part of a wider masterplan to reshape this area of West Drayton into a high quality residential neighbourhood. The project involves the reconfiguration of a consented brownfield site scheme for 44 new affordable rent homes, designed around a raised central courtyard.
Built on the former site of a Dairy Crest distribution centre, these 11 houses have been designed to respect the heritage of the garden city whilst providing high quality homes that meet current aspirations.
As part of our design review we have incorporated improvements to the basement parking, circulation cores and unit layouts to simplify the structural solution, enhanced the entrance sequence and incorporated GLA’s space standards. We have also established an alternative CfSH Level 5 compliant strategy with reduced maintenance costs. These alterations are being negotiated with the planners whilst discharging conditions under the existing permission, enabling the programme to remain on target and for risks relating to delayed drawdown of grant monies to be mitigated.
Location: Construction Cost: GIA: RT Start: RT End:
West Drayton ÂŁ7m 3,800 sqm Q1 2013 Q1 2017
The dwellings are based on a small selection of typologies with individual plots incorporating adjustments to exploit the specific opportunities of each location, plot shape and orientation. This provides variety and choice and helps to settle the buildings within their immediate context. The design detailing creates something modern yet familiar in its language and form. Fenestration is generous, reflecting the established norm within the garden city of optimising visual links between inside and outside whilst the site layout adopts best practices in natural surveillance and establishing pedestrianorentated shared landscape to unify the development.
Location: Construction Cost: GIA: RT Start: RT End:
Welwyn Garden City Confidential 1,160 sqm 01 / 2015 Q4 / 2016
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Farrington Avenue Paddington Churches Housing Association
Location: Construction Cost: GIA: RT Start: RT End:
Bushey ÂŁ26m 15,745 sqm 2006 2011
Farrington Avenue is a 190-unit regeneration scheme that harnessed the energy and enthusiasm of existing residents and the local community to enable a successful three-year redevelopment programme and the creation of an enhanced residential neighbourhood. Following land assembly by the client this former MoD estate was brought back into single ownership, enabling a comprehensive estate-wide regeneration that introduced cross-subsidy to the scheme through mixed-tenure. Following a successful planning negotiation process, consent was granted for a development density that exceeded the local planning policy, acknowledging the high quality design which incorporated 40 replacement family houses, 150 additional units, a replacement community centre, new street layouts and landscape. The masterplan removed all areas of indefensible open space and provided each home with private gardens or balconies. A new through-route to the adjoining neighbourhood combined with improved surveillance of car parking means that the development is now fully integrated in the wider Bushey neighbourhood and is no longer a location for anti-social behaviour.
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London Road
Garden Avenue & Furzen Crescent
Aldwyck Housing Group
Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council
This 62-unit regeneration scheme in Dunstable replaced two run-down 1960s apartment buildings with a vibrant new development that exceeded the Local Authority’s initial expectation of 45-units and created a gateway to the town and surrounding neighbourhoods.
These two developments represent the first new council housing for Welwyn Hatfield in many years. With an extensive stock of larger family houses in the borough the projects will deliver 22 apartments and 7 houses to help meet the demand for affordable housing.
Appointed by Aldwyck as lead consultant we secured consent for a development of significantly higher density than the predominantly two-storey surroundings, enabling a mixed-tenure solution to offset the cost of semi-basement parking.
The project forms part of a programme of works that seeks to redevelop disused domestic garage sites within the borough into attractive homes for local residents. The developments are set within established residential areas, demanding a design approach that minimises impact on the surrounding properties.
The success of the scheme was founded in effective pre-application discussions with the Local Planning Authority and extensive community engagement to gain buy-in to this phased delivery scheme. The final development with its wide balconies, large windows and bold colours brings a new identity to the area and delivers improved living conditions for general needs rent, shared ownership and private sale homes.
The ‘mews-type’ arrangement and aesthetic brings an established, tradition typology with a contemporary feel, creating a sense of place in an otherwise difficult environment. The detailing of a shared hard landscape unifies the buildings, encourages an active streetscape and transforms the site into a sociable, welcoming area.
Location: Construction Cost: GIA: RT Start: RT End:
Location: Construction Cost: GIA: RT Start: RT End:
Dunstable £7.7m 4,610 sqm 05 / 2007 11 / 2011
Hatfield £4.4m 3,500 sqm 09 / 2013 Q3 / 2017
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Our Team
top left to bottom right Tim Robinson Martina Favero Steve Stokes Sally Thompson Richard Watson Andrew Bacon Daniel Goldenberg Guy Shackle Rachel Briglio Charlotte Tamplin Peter Phillipps James Ford Hidely Garcia Rodriguez Mark Gabbey Richard Sharp Caroline Lander Phil Rogers Martha Moshinsky Stephen Bradford Martin Howlett Richard Shepley
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Architecture & Design The Old School Exton Street London SE1 8UE 020 7261 9577 studio@rocktownsend.co.uk
rocktownsend.co.uk