Haven Green
Added value
19 units extra / £12.6m gdv
"The proposed high-quality design would enhance the local character resulting in a well-articulated development."
Committee Report | LB Ealing
A series of tessellating blocks appear in a stepped profile behind Ealing Broadway station in west London, marking the passage from low-rise houses to the 12-storey tower that straddles the railway below. The planted terraces that occupy the building’s steps combine with the grey brick to suggest a vertical geological landscape, emerging within the Haven Green conservation area with its surrounding trees and parkland.
The mix of urban, suburban and infrastructural environments position this project as a buffer between all three. The height change from two-to-nine storeys helps to mediate the different scales and also hides the white high-rise for local residents. It also means that Autor Architecture was able to create 40% more density on the site than the previous proposal, with 26% affordable housing.
Research into the wider area revealed a sequence of larger buildings that follow the railway line, making the new proposal part of a larger urban family. The building therefore has the capacity to absorb the squash club that formerly occupied the site into its base, with a widened public access that is arranged as a linear cobbled courtyard.
An ever-changing pattern of windows, setbacks and overhangs create a playful rhythm across the outside of the building and establish its own identity. East-west terraces bring ample light into apartments so that windows can be reduced on the facades that would lead to overlooking. The exterior steps have been aligned carefully with the internal floorplans, which allows for much greater flexibility of construction methods.