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Location: Clerkenwell, London, EC1V 4LE
Built: 2004
Designer: Berkeley Homes (developers) / Hamilton Associates (architect)
Type: city centre
Density: 198 homes per hectare
Parking ratio: 47%
Pedestrian-only streets and lanes are threaded through a new mixed-use urban quarter. Close to the City financial district, parking is less than 50% and contained in a single underground car park with separate vehicular and pedestrian access, both finely detailed.
The scheme is built on the site of a brewery, with a group of four buildings of variable height and volume formed around the old cobbled dray yard.
The layout is a permeable site focused on a central landscaped square that, together with six townhouses facing a smaller court nearby, creates believable public spaces. The pedestrian route from St John Street into the square passes through the retained brewery arch where the drays once hauled the barrels and the square within, accessed from three other narrow lanes mirroring the dray's route, is a walled haven in the city. The medieval street pattern around Clerkenwell has several of these unexpected places, and with only retail and bar/restaurant units at the street level of the square(s), the scheme reflects the area.
Brewery Square is all market sale, with 57 affordable units, including eight wheelchair flats, on an adjacent site to the north east built in a complementary style at roughly the same time.
Unsurprisingly, given the tight site dimensions, there is a single parking solution. 91 spaces (including 5 for disabled drivers) are provided in an underground basement-level car park, accessed from one point only on Northburgh Street, giving a ratio of 47%.
Pedestrian exits from the car park lead either to the main square or to the residential units above. The car park is reached from an exceptionally wide single ramp serving as both entrance and exit; a remote-controlled roller shutter door secures the car park.
Although vehicles cannot drive onto the site, there is sufficient width in (normally) pedestrian only access ways through the site for emergency services to enter.
The development comprises 1, 2 and 3 bed flats, as well as 6 townhouses and some retail units, arranged in 4 no. 5-8 storey, deep-plan apartment blocks.
View north up St John Street, the area's main north-south thoroughfare.
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Plan showing location of the case study within the wider development.
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Plan showing typical arrangement of off-plot, underground parking within the scheme.
Red Light! - There is no provision for visitor parking and spaces are only available to those buying on the open market.
Proceed With Caution - Less than half the homes are provided with a parking space.
Green Light! - Segregation of vehicles and pedestrians at street level significantly contributes to successful public spaces between buildings, and underground car parking provides controllable, unobtrusive solution with easy and secure access to hones above.
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View of Northburgh Street gates to access ramp.
Red Light! - There is no provision for visitor parking and spaces are only available to those buying on the open market.
Proceed With Caution - Less than half the homes are provided with a parking space.
Green Light! - Segregation of vehicles and pedestrians at street level significantly contributes to successful public spaces between buildings, and underground car parking provides controllable, unobtrusive solution with easy and secure access to hones above.
Be the first to add a comment!
Glass and stainless steel access stair brings residents up in new square.
Red Light! - There is no provision for visitor parking and spaces are only available to those buying on the open market.
Proceed With Caution - Less than half the homes are provided with a parking space.
Green Light! - Segregation of vehicles and pedestrians at street level significantly contributes to successful public spaces between buildings, and underground car parking provides controllable, unobtrusive solution with easy and secure access to hones above.
Be the first to add a comment!
Higher than average floor to ceiling heights in the underground.
Red Light! - There is no provision for visitor parking and spaces are only available to those buying on the open market.
Proceed With Caution - Less than half the homes are provided with a parking space.
Green Light! - Segregation of vehicles and pedestrians at street level significantly contributes to successful public spaces between buildings, and underground car parking provides controllable, unobtrusive solution with easy and secure access to hones above.
Be the first to add a comment!
A translucent screen helps light the generously proportioned access ramp.
Red Light! - There is no provision for visitor parking and spaces are only available to those buying on the open market.
Proceed With Caution - Less than half the homes are provided with a parking space.
Green Light! - Segregation of vehicles and pedestrians at street level significantly contributes to successful public spaces between buildings, and underground car parking provides controllable, unobtrusive solution with easy and secure access to hones above.
Be the first to add a comment!
Space submitted by Sam Brown
17 October 2013