Mint Street Peabody Housing / Pitman Tozer Architects
Mint Street Peabody Housing / Pitman Tozer Architects
Mint Street, a new-build development designed by Pitman Tozer Architects for Peabody, provides 67 new homes for rent, shared ownership and private sale.
Location
Replacing a single-storey of light industrial units and a car park, the new £11m development is located on a busy urban site alongside a railway viaduct in Bethnal Green, East London. It is close to the open parkland of Weavers Fields and amidst a dense mix of light industrial businesses primarily servicing the cityʼs black cabs. Located alongside a brick warehouse building, the old Allen & Hanburys building, recently refurbished for small businesses, the two developments create an elegant ensemble, significantly improving this inner city neighbourhood. The development creates a new London street, Mint Street, a paved pedestrian route between the overground and underground stations at Bethnal Green. Newly planted trees, yellow tiled benches and an integrated lighting scheme make the new street a valuable and safe public amenity.
Description
The accommodation is mixed tenure with private flats subsidising the provision of affordable units, which are rented to tenants on the local housing register. It is ʻtenure-blindʼ with socially rented and apartments for sale sharing the same entrance. The 7-storey brick building curves in line with the adjacent railway viaduct. Providing well laid out accommodation, the building includes a mix of one, two and three bedroom homes on all levels. It updates the typology of the traditional mansion block, using housing to make city streets for the 21st century. Spacious and light-filled apartments are orientated southeast with living rooms overlooking the railway. In between living rooms and the rail line, glazed winter gardens offer private amenity space and create a 'buffer zone' to provide acoustic and visual separation from the noise of passing trains. Only bedrooms are located on the quieter north-western side of the development, overlooking a communal courtyard.
Materials
The building is characterised by the playful use of different brick types including green glazed bricks employed on the ground and first floors at Mint Street to create a distinctive base and contrast with Staffordshire Blue Engineering brick above. The 4-storeys above are cantilevered beyond the line of the base, emphasising the horizontal quality of the street elevation whilst the brick detailing accentuates its curve. The upper level is recessed, creating terraces to the top floor apartments, which offer expansive views of the city skyline.
Drawings
Extra info
Completion:
March 2014
Number of homes:
67
Tenure mix:
40% affordable rent, 26% shared ownership, 34% private sale
Client:
Peabody
Design Team:
Alex Baulch, Chris Browne, Jonathan Crossley, Nikki Cutler, Phil Gee, Simon Graham, Tim Pitman, Luke Tozer
Project Architect:
Nikki Cutler
Building Contractor:
Galliford Try Partnerships
Structural Engineer:
Clarke Nicholls Marcel
Services Engineer:
Max Fordham
Quantity Surveyor:
Calford Seaden
Acoustic Consultant:
Max Fordham
Landscape Architect:
Farrer Huxley Associates
Gross internal area:
4702 sq m
Gross external area:
6900 sq m
