142 Bermondsey St

London SE1- UK

2015


The practice was commissioned to refurbish and extend an unlisted post war building, located in the Bermondsey Street Conservation area, London Borough of Southwark.

The client, a well known and loved community figure, has lived in the area all her life, and at 142 Bermondsey Street for over 20 years. She commissioned the project to breathe a new lease of life into the fast crumbling building that she loved and a new home.

The design proposal was to create a bookend to a historic street; it fused the old and the new, using the existing building as a starting point and then wrapping the building around the corner to benefit from open views and south facing sunlight. The form was developed through a scale study analysis of Bermondsey Street and Lamb Walk, whilst maximising the envelope, and maintaining BRE daylight-sunlight to a ground floor residential unit at 140 Bermondsey Street.

Externally there is a simple white box industrial appearance with robust materials and clean lines. Internally, these clean lines are continued and planes are created, but using softer natural timber alongside industrial materials giving a more residential feel and warmth to the spaces.

The extension and the new build extensions were all constructed using light weight Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) allowing the super structure to be erected within two weeks. This creative cross discipline collaboration with timber engineers Eurban and structural engineers Webb Yates minimised the programme and the requirement for road closure on the tight urban site. This construction technology also allowed the existing foundations to be used - reducing the requirement for archaeological investigations on the sensitive medieval site. The CLT acted both structurally, thermally and internally as a warm durable finished product.

The building has received very positive press and has won awards

Awards

RIBA London Regions Award - Shortlisted 2015
British Homes Sunday Times Award - Winner 2016
RICS Awards - Highly Commended / Special Prize 2017