Aros

London Road comprises 1, 2 and 3 bedroom flats and family housing set round communal landscaped gardens. The scheme includes a large number of affordable homes, together with private sale and rental, as well as provision for active elderly homes and intermediate properties. The scheme is arranged around an L-shaped plan, enclosing a new ‘green heart’ and a generous new landscaped space for residents. Most dwellings are dual aspect and every home benefits from either a private balcony, garden or terrace.

Located between Hounslow and Isleworth, the site had lain dormant for a number of years, due to its sensitive suburban location which presented difficulties in securing a planning consent for a critical mass of development without inappropriate scale.

Our approach to the site was design-led and we proceeded to build a strong relationship with the council, to open up the opportunity to explore how articulation of scale and the use of elegant and restrained materials could create a scheme of sufficient density and height but that was appropriate in the location.

London Road’s resulting scale, which ranges between three to ten storeys, is a considered arrangement of sculpted blocks. The taller elements of the scheme are positioned along the main London Road frontage, where there is less sensitivity to scale. Whereas towards the smaller domestic properties, the scale breaks down to match their more intimate height. Similarly, parts of the block are ‘carved’ to allow light into courtyards.

London Stock brick is used generously throughout the scheme, with varying tones of brickwork subtly differentiating the blocks. Brick lends a feeling of quality, permanence and robustness, while elegant deep maroon window reveals punctuate the facade, adding interest and rhythm. The approach to the elevation treatment is playful, with a randomness to it which is also highly controlled and elegant. The scale and massing are broken down through the detailing and articulation to appear as a composition of elements rather than one ‘monolithic’ scheme.

The completed scheme represents a step change in the quality of residential accommodation in the area and is a precedent scheme in its successful use of brick to mediate both massing and scale, to secure planning permission to transform the site.

The completed scheme represents a step change in the quality of residential accommodation in the area and is a precedent scheme in its successful use of brick to mediate both massing and scale, to secure planning permission to transform the site.