2009 WINNING SCHEMES > Project Winners

 

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Talgarth Road is one of those grand old Victorian routes now pounded by London traffic flowing up and down the Hammersmith flyover. The local landmark 1890 Frank Wheeler ‘studio houses for the requirements of bachelor artists’ with their triple-height picture windows, inadvertently created enough character to stand up to the bullying highway outside. Nearby this new terrace of homes has a more deliberate strategy.

The long shallow 0.12 ha site runs along the north side of the road and overlooks a conservation area behind. Seven 2-bed duplex units set on top of seven 1-bed flats create 14 homes in a building block of 12 and a final detached block of two. The gap encloses the route into a deck access that serves the duplexes so that residents walk to their front doors along a short elevated route, partly screened from the road with timber louvres.

To address rights of light and overlooking issues for residents in the Gwendwr Road behind, buildings use the full height of their three storeys to the Talgarth Road side. They have a flat roof to about half their depth, topped with a chimney-like vent which houses a heat recovery system to the mechanical ventilation, before the roof is angled sharply downward to meet the rear elevation at first floor.

The duplexes have open-plan dining-living spaces rising to the full height of the soffit, which are like the volumes found in artists’ studios. Louvred double-height windows to the Talgarth Road are supported by smaller roof lights positioned to give light at different times of the day. Two bedrooms on the first floor of the duplex are set to the back of the unit to give them extra shelter from the rumble of the highway. The principal double bedroom has a sizeable balcony, again louvred for privacy to the Gwendwr Road this time.

Ground floor 1-bed apartments open to the Talgarth Road side with kitchens and bathrooms dissected by the access, while the front door is given some screening by a louvred fence. Bedroom and living spaces are set to the north garden side of the plan, and extend into the garden.

All ground floor apartments have private rear gardens. Residents in the duplexes have their own private outdoor space, a small secure garden to the west end of the site which is reached directly from the deck access. This strategy means all units have on average 20 m2 of amenity space, nearly 50% more than Hammersmith and Fulham’s minimum.

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