King Henry’s Drive

KING HENRY’S DRIVE
New Addington, Croydon

The site for our proposals is an open green space in the middle of the post-war development of New Addington and Fieldway. Located at the brow of the hill on King Henry’s Drive, the green is overlooked by house numbers 89 to 119. Key to our approach was the retention of a large area of open green to the north of the new building. The resultant massing continues the development line along King Henry’s Drive, whilst recognising the importance of the site through a new civic presence that protects the retained green space to the north.

The building is therefore an object within the landscape, with all four elevations of urban importance and new planting provided on each side to soften the impact of the development. When relating these four ‘front’ elevations to the suburban character of New Addington, we have drawn our references from the BISF houses which line the crescent and King Henry’s Drive. These steel-framed houses, developed during the 1940’s, use simple architectural devices on their front facades. The ground floor is distinguished with a brick base whilst steel sheets or timber weather boarding are located above. Some of the houses along King Henry’s Drive still feature the original slender metal poles which support an overhang to the front doors and we have taken inspiration for our elevation treatments from this immediate context.

Taking this principle of splitting the upper and lower floors creates a horizontal emphasis to the elevation, which we feel reduces the scale of our own building. The proposal aims to ground itself within the landscape, embedding the ground floor into the sloping topography of the green. This move enables us to reduce the visible height of the elevation on the King Henry’s Drive side. Furthermore, a level ground floor can be provided, with an accessible entrance from the car park through to the south front gardens.

Circulation to each flat is through a naturally lit corridor with a four story void above the entrance to give light and air to these communal spaces.

Area: 22 homes・  Budget: NA ・  Status: Planning
Client: Brick by Brick