Taylor Court and Chatto Court, together with Wilmott Court, form a pair of mixed-tenure housing accommodating 45 new homes commissioned on two sites at the edge of the post-war Frampton Park Estate, part of Hackney Council’s in-house, not for-profit Council housebuilding programme.

Located some 300m apart along Well Street, Taylor Court and Chatto Court rise from the empty site of the previously demolished Frampton Arms pub, whilst Wilmott Court replaces Lyttelton House, a small building which accommodated six homes that no longer met modern requirements.

These buildings explore meaningful ways in which architecture can support a social infrastructure in London. The grouping and massing negotiate between the contrasting urban conditions of the post-war estate and the Victorian street, repairing the urban fabric in a way that extends the public realm. Each building occupies its respective site with generous external public space interwoven along the street and within the estate. 

The dignity and wellbeing of residents is key, as is the capacity of a building to orientate inhabitants to the environment. Thus, some 90% of homes are dual or triple aspect; the journey from street to home choreographed with loggias, courts, generous hallways and conspicuous staircases; and the requirement for outdoor amenity space the inspiration for an architecture at the threshold between domestic interior and urban. 

Sociality through a heightened awareness of belonging to a place is further emphasised in the richness of housing typologies, from street-level townhouses to lateral apartments to duplex maisonettes. This range of accommodation makes for an exceptionally varied and engaging group of homes that prioritises the individual experience.

This project is part of Hackney Council’s ambitious programme, which is providing hundreds of new Council homes through an innovative, in-house and not-for-profit approach – with genuinely affordable homes paid for through selling some homes outright in the absence of government funding.

Environmental sustainability was integral to the project. All the buildings are designed with a design life in excess of fifty years, with embodied carbon for both Taylor & Chatto Court (500 kgCO2eq/m2) and Wilmott Court (550 kgCO2eq/m2) below RIBA 2030 Challenge’s 2020 targets.

Andreas Ruby