Industrious housing

Jacob Willson
Sep 5, 2018 · 4 min read

London’s industrial areas can be dynamic and vibrant places that often include exciting uses that mix less well with other parts of the city. This can include brewery bars, nightclubs, potteries and other creative uses as well as informal activity. Industrial areas can provide large space, relatively cheaper rents, loose space, easy access for vehicles and freedom from the many constraints that can come from being close to residential areas. Many industrial areas are ‘other’ places, separated from the surrounding urban landscapes by large infrastructure such as rail, canals or flyovers.

The separation of industry from housing has existed since early planning movements sought to separate noisy and smelly industrial uses from residential areas. However, this separation is now being questioned with housing looking to muscle in on London’s industrial areas.

This is been driven by the desperate need to find new space to deliver much needed housing along with the design of new typologies that can combine industrial and residential uses. This is a hot topic in London at the moment as many local authorities and developers look to industrial areas to deliver new housing, however there are few examples of this being achieved on the ground.

One scheme that has achieved this rich mix is Caxton Works in Canning Town, the. The scheme is designed by Studio Egret West and developed by U+I and Galliard Homes. The development includes 13 commercial units allocated for B1 uses with 336 homes located above.

Caxton Works is a good example of achieving a mix of industrial uses with new homes. The ground floor is largely given over to industrial units. Many of the units are a 6 meter cube, allowing enough space for a mezzanine if required. There is also a limited number of larger units available.

The design works hard to communicate an industrious character. The landscape, building materials and roofscape all shouting an industrial aesthetic through the use of raised planters in large steel beams, corrugated corten cladding and saw-tooth roofs. The high quality finishes create streets that feel attractive to walk around, even when the units are unoccupied as they were on the day I visited

Once filled with businesses, it is easy to imagine them spilling out onto the public realm creating a lively and vibrant space. This type of mixing has real potential to create an interesting character and place and add value to the development as a whole.

Jacob Willson

Written by

Designer and urban planner working in London. WCMT Associate, researching creative design and planning of housing

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