Wellfit+Hardess, Loughborough Junction

Metaphorm Architects

Creative light industrial and residential mixed-use development by Metaphorm Architects providing a makers hub, 170 market and affordable homes plus new public realm, located at the viaducts crossing.

NEW LONDON AWARDS 2020

Shortlisted in the EXPERIENCING CULTURE category

Located at the crossing of Victorian railway viaducts at Loughborough Junction, the design seeks to further the neighbourhood’s evolving character as a centre for creativity and making, whilst also delivering housing of all tenures. A 2,000 sqm creative light industrial hub and visitor centre ground the development, comprising large high ceiling shared workshops at street level and flexible studios on two mezzanines. 170 homes are located above, across two high-rise blocks. New through-routes, open spaces, cafes, study zones, and permeable building envelopes create a vibrant public realm.

Londons Tall Buildings Survey 2020

Located at the crossing of Victorian railway viaducts at Loughborough Junction, this employment-led proposal seeks to complement and improve the light industrial space for craftspeople on site and in its surroundings, to contribute to the neighbourhood’s evolving character as a centre for creativity and making, and to deliver housing of all tenures. A creative light industrial hub grounds the development, comprising large high ceiling shared workshops on the ground floor and flexible studios on two mezzanines. The scheme provides 170 market and affordable homes across two 29- and 20-storey blocks. New through routes, a widened viaduct passageway, and public open space create a vibrant public realm.

The differing needs of the co-located use types are addressed by front/back and top/bottom separations. The creative light industrial functions are vertically separated from the dwellings above by an open-air communal amenity floor, which positions the dwellings well above the adjacent railway viaducts. On the ground floor, the workspace is divided between front-of-house, publicly visible and accessible functions, and back-of-house light industrial space, affording their necessary operational freedom.

The scheme powerfully marks the viaduct junction. Through scale, proportions and expression, the two buildings add richness and interest rather than bulk to the skyline. Together with the emerging high-rise development to the north, they form a cohesive urban grouping. Café and meeting spaces complement existing boxing club, independent cinema and artists’ studios in railway arches to activate a wide viaduct passageway with multiple routes opening up the site to its surroundings.

The proposal provides 35 per cent affordable housing on site with a 70/30 tenure split of social rented/intermediate dwellings.

Height: 101m
Number of storeys: 29

‘Artists, designers and makers across London are struggling to retain a foothold in the capital. Many existing studio and workshop spaces in inner London are under pressure of redevelopment, typically to meet high housing demand, resulting in employment land and jobs being taken away from these communities. The design for Wellfit+Hardess addresses the pressing need for a new socio-economic, urbanistic, and architectural model for co-locating creative light industrial spaces with housing, providing a vision of a new kind of town planning for London that symbiotically places hubs of specialist production facilities for communities of designers and makers within residential neighbourhoods. Its architectural design principles seek to ensure a comfortable and unencumbered relationship between live and work areas and to carefully address their side-by-side location through the creation of successful interfaces. A new typological hybrid has emerged, with re-deployment potential across urban sites of similar character.’ Dr Joseph Watters, Director, Metaphorm Architects

Project information

Status

Proposed

Borough

Lambeth

Completion

2022

Location

1 Hardess St, London SE24 0HN, UK

Team Credits

Client

Essee