The homes at Claredale Street in Bethnal Green were awarded the Civic Trust award for making an outstanding contribution to the quality and appearance of the built environment. The project occupies the site of Bradley House, an 8 storey slab block that failed socially and structurally 20 years ago. The new buildings have public, shared and private spaces. The award winning scheme by Karakusevic Carson Architects replaces Lasdun’s accompanying low-rise block by restating two north-south streets in the original grid. An abiding impression of the new scheme is that it takes great care in defining home from public space.
“The development provides 87 affordable dwellings within four new buildings including seven family houses commercial space a canalside restaurant and a charity daycare centre. The coherent design successfully resolves complexities of the existing site with a common architectural language. Large ground floor commercial units enliven the street scene and a double height restaurant enjoys views onto the canal Dwellings”.
Affordable housing is the hot potato that doesn’t go away any time soon since the ever increasing speed of urbanisation. Many cities including London are in the middle of affordable housing crisis. At the moment there are no answers how to tackle the problem, which will only deepen as the recession continues.
Trending Topics by Minna Takala 