Residential · New Build
Seven new-build houses on a disused light industrial site in South London. Commissioned by a developer-contractor, the scheme transforms a brownfield gap site into a terrace of contemporary concrete houses — three storeys, averaging 130 sqm each, with front gardens and rear balconies opening onto a shared square. Drawing on the visual language of the site's industrial heritage, the concrete shell is paired with open glazed facades front and rear to maximise daylight and flexibility. The ground floor accommodates a study or reception; the first floor is the social hub — kitchen and living — while the top floor holds the private bedrooms. This inversion of the conventional plan places the kitchen at the heart of the house and keeps the ground floor adaptable for work, hosting or mixed use. The uniform shell allows for variety in fit-out, welcoming a wide range of households and budgets. Mono-pitched roofs integrate solar panels and rainwater harvesting. All seven houses are fully accessible, with step-free entry at front and rear and generously sized folding glazed doors to the rear terrace.
A developer-contractor came across a disused light industrial site in South London — an awkwardly shaped gap behind the existing row of Kenbury Mansions, accessed off Canterbury Close — and asked us what could be done with it. The answer was seven houses.
The client was also the builder, which changed how the project ran. We were talking about foundations, fenestration and buildability from the first design stage rather than discovering cost problems at tender.
The plot was a backland gap: irregular, hemmed in by neighbouring properties, with no street frontage of its own. Access had to come via a private road, which shaped both the layout and the argument for it — privacy and security became design advantages rather than compromises.
Seven units on a difficult site only work if the construction logic is repetitive. The scheme had to be buildable at a sensible cost without reading as seven identical boxes.
The site had been light industry; the context was row housing. A scheme that ignored either would have struggled.
We used the traditional terrace typology and changed its materials and its section. A concrete shell draws on the visual language of the site’s industrial past and stitches the new houses to the existing row in front; glazed facades front and rear pull daylight through what would otherwise be dark, deep plans.
The kitchen and living space sit on the first floor rather than the ground, with bedrooms above and a study or reception at entrance level. Putting the social hub in the middle of the section gives it light from both sides, leaves the ground floor free to be a home office, a workshop or a spare room, and — in a backland site reached by a private road — puts someone working at a desk in view of the approach during the day.
The seven shells are identical, which is what makes them affordable to build. Everything above the shell — finishes, fit-out, how the open floors are divided — was left to the occupant. The houses are deliberately not over-engineered or over-planned, so a single structural idea suits a range of households and budgets, and could convert to office use later without structural change.
All seven houses have step-free access front and rear, wider-than-standard doors throughout, and generously sized folding glazed doors to the rear terrace. The ground floor is fully step-free. There is no passenger lift.
Seven houses over three storeys, averaging 130 sqm, each with a front garden and a rear balcony opening onto a shared square. The scheme was built.
The scheme was submitted to the New London Awards in 2019. It was not placed.