Three Sisters

Our ‘Three Sisters’ project is an infill development for the London Borough of Camden that will create three new houses on the Barrington Court Estate. The project is part of Camden’s Community Investment Programme (CIP), which looks at asset rationalisation including the development of houses for private sale.

The design for each house responds to its small awkward-shaped plot with a sophisticated arrangement of set-backs, courtyard spaces, raked parapets and window configurations in order to overcome potential overlooking, to retain mature trees and to comply with statutory design standards including the provision of private amenity space.

The new homes share a common palette of materials, but each differ in height, scale and fenestration in response to each of the plots different shapes, trees and particular conditions. As part of the design process we explored with the Tennant and Residents Association for the estate how the design of the new homes sat next to their homes, where the front doors were located and how the approach to them made them feel part of the estate rather than buildings tagged on the end.

A collaborative approach was necessary for the project as the principle of development was sensitive and required a considered response to context in a way that local groups could understand and accept. We were appointed on the project following a public exhibition where residents of the local authority voted for the architect that they wanted to develop the scheme. This process off accountable design process continued throughout the project and enabled the final designs to be ones that the community understood and gave their support to.

For the design of the houses, we were interest in how they each have an individual character as a bookend to a uniform terrace. How their elevations turn the corner around a triangular site, providing a window arrangement that is playful externally, dynamic internally and which creates a sense of connection, with natural surveillance, to the houses position on a cross-road.

The houses are designed around their gardens. Made up of enclosed winter gardens, roof terraces, formal front gardens and a wild enclosure for a large copper beach tree, the houses wrap the perimeter of the sites with a banded wall. This arrangement allows the external space to feel like an extension of the interiors, enhancing the quality of light and general scale of the family spaces within the homes.

Working with the project engineers we developed an efficient building envelop that achieves best thermal performance and minimises the building’s weight. By using a timber-framed solution with full-fill insulation, high performing air-tightness membranes and a brick outer leaf we worked to passive-house principles for energy-performance and a structural scheme that reduces on the site, the impact on tree roots and the amount of concrete required in construction.

The roofs to the houses are brown roofs; wild roofs that work with the natural flora of the setting, reduce water run-off and increase local bio-diversity. The brown roofs will change colour seasonally and most importantly will look pleasant from the neighbouring tower block for residents of the estate to look down on.