hornsey park

Location: Wood Green, London
Client: St William
Status: Planning consented April 2019

A pair of buildings providing 100 homes, a retail unit and a community cafe onto a park, in the heart of the Clarendon Gas Works masterplan.

Building D1 is located at a pivotal position in the heart of the wider masterplan
forming the key northern frontage onto the Community Park and signifies the east-west route through the site, when moving north along Mary Neuner Road.
As such, Building D1 is an important moment in wider masterplan whole scheme, forming a gateway from the south, towards the more urban Eastern and Northern Quarters.
 
Building D1's height mediates the varied context
between the adjacent building of C1 (11-15 storeys) to the west and D2 (5-6 storeys) to the east. The massing has been manipulated using a series of legible elements of varying facade character and height, so as to humanise the overall form. A common palette of light buff brick and rich red bricks are used through-out, with complementary detailing in pre-cast concrete.

Bonded-in brickwork projections are used to order the facades
creating expressed reveals to windows and enhancing the double-storey nature or as full height paired ribs onto the south facade.

An extensive water feature fronts onto the park
revealing the base to one of the gasometer's, memorialising the former industrial nature of the site.


Building D2 is located at an interesting knuckle in the wider masterplan, fronting onto four important public spaces
- the Community Park to the south
- the ecological route to the east
- the entry court to the west
- the Eastern Quarter's central courtyard to the north

The elevations have been tailored to respond to these differing outlooks.
The entrance is located on the corner of the route through the site, so is visible from both Mary Neuner Road and the central courtyard.

The facades are detailed to subtly group floor plates
defining a base which mediates the ground levels, a middle section of repeated floors and an upper portion where the massing drops away to improve sunlight onto the central amenity space.

Striated projecting brickwork patterning, pared with individual recessed brick courses are employed to enrich the facades and as devices to conceal movement joints.