Adelaide Wharf
Introduction
Adelaide Wharf is a pioneering mixed tenure housing scheme comprising 147 new homes and 650 sq m of workspace.
Located on the Regent’s Canal in Hackney, a key regeneration area of London, First Base has created sustainable, adaptable and well designed homes set within a safe environment with
communal facilities for all residents.
The scheme is the first to be delivered as part of English Partnerships’ London-Wide Initiative (LWI) with a mix of privately sold, Key Worker and socially rented apartments. There is no visible differentiation between tenures and all of
the homes are built and managed to the same high specification. Adelaide Wharf combines sophisticated urban intervention, emerging efficient construction technologies and the latest
thinking in residential development.
Social Housing and Tenure Mix
The LWI is a scheme by English Partnerships that aims to substantially increase the supply of affordable homes for Key Workers in London, in mixed tenure schemes. The LWI scheme also aims to encourage exemplars for regeneration of disused
and abandoned property in key London Boroughs.
In September 2004 Allford Hall Monaghan Morris submitted designs for First Base’s London Wide Initiative bid, based on the prototype developed in the housing study above. The bid having
been successful, Adelaide Wharf in Hackney was then one of three sites allocated by English Partnerships for First Base to
develop. The site had an existing planning consent for 131 flats (33 of social rented flats), and 1600 sq. m of B1 office space.
Allford Hall Monaghan Morris rationalised the proposals and a new planning application was consented by LB Hackney in December 2005.
Adelaide Wharf combines high quality privately owned apartments with shared equity Key Worker and social housing in a non-hierarchical architecture and no visible differentiation
between tenures. Whilst the private apartments overlook the canal the social housing element enjoys views over the expansive park to the south and beyond to the City skyline. The effort to ensure a social mix stripped of stigmatisation
is a profound and important innovation, one that more than meets the Mayor’s criteria, indeed pushes ambition far beyond the mandatory concessions to affordable housing. This is a
major milestone for English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation, which provides significant funding for the socially rented homes at Adelaide Wharf.
Also at Adelaide Wharf, First Base developed an innovative
home ownership scheme, HomeHold™, which enabled
purchasers to own their home with no extra rent to pay,
and a proportion of any uplift in value being shared with the
landowner when the property is sold on. The 41 Key Worker
apartments at Adelaide Wharf were reserved within three
hours of going on sale through HomeHold™.
The Adelaide Wharf site is in a residential part of Hackney, with
the Regent’s Canal to the north and Haggerston Park to the
south. It was previously used as warehousing in a brutal building,
on the site of an old timber wharf. The six storey block wraps
around three sides of a landscaped courtyard defining the edges
of the city block, and the two street elevations have coloured
entrance courts lined in glossy vitreous enamel cladding panels
punched through between streetscape and courtyard, linking
into the circulation cores in each corner. The plan of the upper
residential floors is based on a rotational symmetry about the
two cores, from which the corridors radiate out. The three
blocks express this rotation externally in the way in which they
turn the corners and their gable ends are clad.
The two main entrances to the building are sheltered and
gated outdoor spaces, double height slots extruded through
the building, which are lined in glossy vitreous enamel cladding
panels. They emphasise the break in the block at street level
and frame views of the garden from the streetside. Graphics
and the strong colour give each entrance a clear identity and
address. Enclosed stair lobbies, post-boxes and concierge’s
facilities for the housing above are located to the side of these
entrance courts. The cores take up the shift in the building grid
at each corner, and the break is used to provide a full height
slot window from lobby glazing up to a roof light, maximising
daylight in the circulation, and providing views into the
landscaped courtyard from each lift and stair landing.
The circulation is arranged in double banked corridors, each
with daylight at one end to orientate the user. The corridor
ending at the canal has a fully glazed slot, and double and triple
height voids next to the window, to maximise the amount of
daylight falling into the corridor, and to dramatize the view.
The main entrance lobby and stairwell is lined with a 16m tall
printed timber pattern by local artist Richard Woods echoing
the former use of the site and the external cladding. Richard
Woods was selected after a design competition run by First
Base at neighbouring artist studio The Tannery.
The ground floor is a smooth engineering brick base, taking
up taking up the changes in level as the road climbs towards
the canal bridge. Recesses and projections on the ground
floor create a series of events on the street, with coloured
doors acting as a contrast to the brick. The entrances to the
ground floor 4 bed flats each have stairs projecting onto the
street, defining their defensible space. The cladding to the
upper storeys is lighter and more textured in character, and
consists of vertical boards of rough sawn Siberian Larch, fixed
board on board to emphasise the vertical grain, set between
bands of smooth zinc. Its fenestration has two repeating
window patterns, one of large window openings to the living
rooms, and one of vertically proportioned windows onto the
bedrooms. This pattern repeats around the building reflecting
the arrangement of the flats inside, and the whole treatment is
unified by the horizontal zinc band running at each floor level.
Each flat has a balcony supported from beams at roof level,
cantilevering like lifting beams on warehouses. Each balcony
is clad with a coloured plane with a single fold in it, and offset
from the windows, cantilevering in alternate directions at each
floor to produce double height gaps between them and reduce
overshadowing to the living rooms below. The colours on the
planes of the balconies are then graduated across the façade,
which seen are seen to best advantage obliquely down the
street.
The courtyard at the heart of the scheme is a shared garden
for use by the residents, the landscaping providing a focus
when viewed from above and from the street. Simple use of
geometric lines relating to the facades, circulation and lines of
movement through the site create a variety of smaller spaces
for the use of different groups of people for resting or playing
in the space simultaneously. These are formed by lines of hedges
and trees delineating different simple surface finishes.
Internal Layouts
The design of the 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments all follow a similar strategy. Circulation is kept to a minimum, so that
the living area is maximised and the deep plan locates all
the serviced spaces along the corridor wall, with the living /
sleeping spaces making maximum use of the window walls. The
repetition of the bathroom types, kitchen types and flat layouts
allows for one carefully considered and worked out solution to
be applied across all the flats, so that they all benefit from the
quality derived by the standardisation of the architectural idea.
The layouts all have open plan living/kitchen/diners, to maximise
the sense of space. Additionally, the one bedroom flats have
double doors opening between the living and bedroom,
extending the main space so that the occupants can occupy the
space more flexibly.
The family flats within the upper storeys are mostly located
on the south facing elevations. Their enlarged balconies are
extensions of the living room areas, and provide a room sized
external amenity, but even the balconies to the smaller flats are
large enough for a table and chairs, and to operate as a useable
outdoor space.
Sustainability
Adelaide Wharf is currently with BREEAM for validation,
targeting an Excellent rating (subject to the outcomes of
acoustic and daylighting reports). The key drivers have been
affordability and efficiency, with a pre packaged central plant
on the roof providing heat to all flats, which may be easily
replaced should the energy source need changing. Domestic
hot water is also generated by the central plant from localised
heat exchangers avoiding the energy losses of central hot water
storage. Lighting throughout the building has been designed
to be low energy use. All flat types have 50 - 60% low energy
fittings and occupancy sensors control landlord areas. Water
saving devices such as aerated taps, dual flush cisterns and low-
flow showers are specified to reduce consumption.
Situated next to the Wildlife corridor of the Regent’s Canal,
the north block has a brown roof which over time will be
colonised by local flora, and 40 bird boxes designed for various
different species. Rainwater from the roof is harvested and
stored for landscape irrigation, and a strip of land between
the building and the canal is planted and left to grow into
wildflower grassland. All the timber used in the construction
of Adelaide Wharf was FSC certified, including the untreated
Larch cladding, internal floors, doors, joinery and timber used
for temporary works. The development has 183 secure bike
spaces and a children’s’ play area.
Process and Prefabrication
Adelaide Wharf is the result of three years of working closely
with First Base and Bovis Lend Lease (BLL) to develop a
building system that reduces trades, interfaces and construction
time on site. BLL worked with the design team from the outset
in putting together a fully costed bid for English Partnerships,
and all proposals were discussed in detail with their trade
contractors to test their buildability and find more efficient
forms of construction. The resulting system is a prototype
for other First Base housing schemes, which has and will
continue to evolve as lessons are learnt from the procurement,
construction and operation of Adelaide Wharf and future
projects.
The modern construction methods employed reduced trades
to as few as possible, minimising wet trades on site and making
extensive and pragmatic use of prefabrication to reduce
time on site and improve the quality of build. The principal
components are a concrete frame with flat slabs and blade
columns using prefabricated reinforcement mats, a unitised
cladding system avoiding the need for scaffolding, prefabricated
bathroom pods, balconies and plant, and dry-lined internal
partitions. The build was completed in 18 months, including for
2 months lost due to below ground obstructions in the former
brown-field site.
Through the use of modern construction methods, First Base
has reduced overall construction costs at Adelaide Wharf by
20% whilst reducing delivery time for the project by 20%. This
has also contributed to a 10% increase in property values
across the schedule.
Conclusion
Adelaide Wharf is a high quality, sustainable development. The
scheme is a genuine mixed tenure community that brings a new
urban density, scale and architectural quality to the area and
provides an innovative prototype for future housing schemes.
Project Team:
Client: First Base Ltd & English Partnerships
RSL Landlord: Family Mosaic with Housing Corporation funding
Main Contractor: Bovis Lend Lease
Architect: Allford Hall Monaghan Morris
Structural Engineers: Adams Kara Taylor
Services Engineers: Waterman Building Services
Quantity Surveyors: Faithful and Gould
Building Manager: Tower Homes
Landscape Architect: Charles Funke Associates
Artist: Richard Woods
Fire Consultant: Warrington Fire
Acoustic Consultant: Sandy Brown Associates
Access Consultant: David Bonnett Associates
Approved Inspector: Butler & Young
Planning Supervisor: Bovis Lend Lease
Planning Consultant: DP9 Planning Consultant
Transport Consultant: ARUP, Transport
Ecological Consultant: Ecology Solutions
Party Wall & Rights of Light: Goodman Mann Associates
Real Estate Consultant Savills
Trade Contractors: Sipral (cladding), AJ Morrisroe & Sons Ltd (concrete frame),
PAD Contracts Ltd (balconies), Swift Brickwork Contractors
Ltd, Cubitt Building & Interiors Ltd (landscape & lobbies),
Prater Ltd (roof), Southdown Construction Ltd (metalwork),
OTIS Ltd (lifts), Axiom Contract Flooring (flooring), M&S
Contractors Ltd (joinery), Handrail Design Ltd (internal
balustrades), OCP-Ratgrad Ltd (bathroom pods), A&H
Contractors Ltd (kitchens).
Allford Hall Monaghan Morris Team Members:
Simon Allford, Marion Clayfield, Jonathan Hall, Will Lee, Paul Monaghan, Peter Morris, James Lusher, Morna Robert-
son, Morag Tait & Barbara Witt.
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