A brick housing scheme in east London by pH+ forms a strong connection to its site
Located on a complex site opposite London’s Victoria Park, Old Ford Road is a three-storey residential scheme comprising eight high-quality dwellings. Designed by pH+, the scheme is intended to evoke language of wharf buildings situated alongside Hertford Union Canal, as well as the rhythm and mass of Georgian terraces in the neighbouring conservation area.
The plan incorporates both dual- and triple-aspect dwellings with views to the park and street. Terraces and staggered balconies on the upper floors, together with cockpit terraces set into the roof, maximise external space while also maintaining privacy for residents.
Site plan, ground, first and second-floor plans; roof plan
Each dwelling features extensive views of the canal and Victoria Park. A ground-floor terrace and private garden area ensure that the scheme maintains a canal facing ‘green edge’. Insect, bird and bat roosting boxes are set within the facade to further boost biodiversity.
The scale of the scheme sympathetically responds to the adjacent apartment blocks, continuing their line along the canal. Its distinctive gabled profile echoes the rhythm of the surrounding terraces, while the robust simplicity of its forms, with large openings maximise daylight to the living spaces, and echo the historic industrial vernacular of the local area.
The folding rear facade opens up and frames vistas along the canal, as well as celebrates views over Victoria Park to the north. By contrast, the front facade responds to the more ordered rhythm of the fenestration of the conservation area opposite, with the folding planes creating defensible space, as well as defining recessed entrances to each dwelling.
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