Hopewell Yard
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This warehouse conversion is located within an old yard building in Camberwell, South London
The 150sqm+ floor plate is surrounded by an unsightly post-modern apartment complex limiting its amount of external glazing to just three windows and a few old skylights. The existing building was very run down but full of beautiful features such as fair faced brickwork throughout and an exposed wood and steel roof structure. It was the task of this project to provide three bedrooms, two bathrooms and simply a general nice environment by allowing more natural daylight into the space and by putting an emphasis on the original features.
The main space has seen the most dramatic intervention in the shape of a frameless glass box that penetrates the roof and is hung into the void utilizing the existing structure. The box enables daylight into the space beneath but also acts as a small external amenity space. The upper level bedroom is accessed via a new black steel grating staircase which also connects the glass box via a high level ‘cat walk’. The required layout has been achieved by introducing just two new windows adjacent to one of the existing ones and by some additional skylights. The bed- and bathrooms have been arranged around them over two levels and seemingly read as inserted boxes within the space. As a result of that some of areas benefit of a double height space.
The existing floor has been stripped back. The found concrete slab has been repaired, polished and sealed. The end result is a no-frills patchwork of a tremendous quality. An existing recess around the perimeter of the slab has been utilized to introduce a trench heating throughout the lower floor level. The project is extremely Carbon friendly by having maintained, recycled and refurbished many original materials.
Photography by Paul Riddle
Data
- Begun: Nov 2017
- Completed: Jul 2018
- Floor area: 193m2
- Sector: Residential
- Total cost: £211,000
- Funding: Private
- Tender date: Sep 2017
- Procurement: JCT Minor Work CDR 2011
- Address: Hopewell Yard, London, SE5, United Kingdom
Professional Team
- Architect: Space Group Architects
- Client: Oliver Bottomley
- Structural engineer: Constant Structural Design
- Main contractor: MICI Brothers