Redchurch Street
London, E2
A warehouse conversion on Redchurch Street, adding an additional storey and reconfiguring the back of the building to provide access and amenity space to both new residential and new retail units. This project was developed by Tatiana von Preussen, co-director of vPPR Architects, as a joint-venture with Redchurch Street Properties.
LOCATION: Shoreditch, London, UK
TYPE: Mixed-use (commercial, residential)
GROSS INTERNAL AREA: Retail 540m2, residential 320m2
AWARDS: RIBA London Award Winner
The architects had demonstrated significant skill in weaving various different uses and flat types into an extremely tight site, with construction further complicated by the second and third floors remaining in occupation throughout the building. The result is a gentle intervention as seen from the street, concealing a complex and engaging use of space serving the residential on the upper floors.RIBA Judges 2015
This mixed-use development contains two floors of retail at the lower levels and five new apartments above, arranged along two parallel streets, one private and the other facing out to public life.
On the more public side, a series of curtain-like steel fascia hang above the high-end stores below, using industrial materials in an elegant fashion, appropriate to the new role Shoreditch plays in the city.
Along the back of the development communal terraces cascade down the back of the building, providing residents with a shared outdoor space, promoting neighbourly relations.
A series of timber boxes have been scattered across the floors above, containing the bathrooms, kitchens and bedrooms for the residents and allowing light from above into every room.
The deep block struggled with natural daylight but now an elongated courtyard threads through the building, acting as an internal street and pulling light to the back of the retail floors.
The traditional warehouse aesthetic of the existing building has been acknowledged and celebrated, with sturdy industrial elements exposed in large, open-plan spaces.