2010 WINNING SCHEMES > Completed Winners

 

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This development of two restored houses and 18 new apartments in the centre of Lincoln owes much to Georgian precedents around the city. Its excellence owes even more to the architect’s conviction that you can reproduce Georgian’s fine points in an honestly contemporary style.


The 0.11 ha site is next to the new Lincoln Museum in an emerging cultural quarter to one side of The Strait, the pedestrian-only route to the cathedral. Listed houses and warehouses on the site led to lengthy discussions with the conservation officer. Designs were then workshopped with local businesses and residents and their comments fed into the design before the scheme was consented in summer 2006. The delicate progress continued for the site’s five separate party-wall agreements. One listed house turned out to be in such poor repair that it had to be demolished and rebuilt. The project was on site for 22 months.

The result presents itself as a terrace of six distinct buildings forming the north side of courtyard with a seventh to the south making a gated access from Grantham Street. The terrace begins at its western end with a restored 2-storey house, followed by the rebuilt listed house which now has its roof set back and a glazed south-facing wall hidden behind the parapet onto a 9.5m wide terrace with views over Lincoln. Steps in building line and changes to facing material from Georgian style bricks laid with lime mortar to cedar cladding mean the next four elements housing shallow plan apartments present themselves as distinct townhouses or warehouses.

The terrace is linked by the repetitive use of an upright rectangular window which is Georgian in proportion. These light up the apartment plans but also let in views, so the architect has also updated the Georgian shutter as a white-painted MDF folding screen. This device means residents can shut out light and noise without the window rhythm being lost to a tutti-frutti of curtains and blinds.

This window pattern is more rigorous on the facing elevation of the Grantham Street block where reveals are chamfered for sideways views to nearby green space and early morning light. The Grantham Street block has a commercial space opening onto gorgeous York stone flags. Among the scheme’s delights are such gracious shared parts, both inside and out, including the archway access. Apartments are generously finished with oak floors and bespoke joinery, while flats on top floors have double height spaces lit by roof lights.

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