A bigger splash: architects shedkm propose a new housing model
A smart new housing scheme in Manchester should make conventional volume house-builders sit up and take notice.
Called hoUSe, the scheme is designed by Liverpool architects shedkm and sits in New Islington, a former brownfield site flanked by two canals. The quarter is dominated by Will Alsop's Chips apartment block, with its inevitable cantilever, and is also home to Islington Square, 23 eclectic social housing units by FAT.
Developer Urban Splash – best known for their loft spaces – tasked shedkm with creating a modern-day Georgian terrace of 43 units that could be customised by the home-owner. Shedkm's solution was to design each of the three floors as a self-contained box, which slot on top of each other.
Nottinghamshire manufacturers of structural timber panels, InsulShell, which worked on Hopkins Architects' velodrome for the London 2012 Olympics, created the boxes in their factory and transported them to the plot.
Services such as kitchen and bathrooms are plugged into the central core, and buyers can choose different configurations of living rooms and bedrooms. What's more, they can position sleeping quarters either on the ground floor or the top floor, which has a pitched roof.
Unlike many offerings from volume house-builders, skedkm's 1,500 sq ft, £330,000 dwellings are no diminutive Victorian pastiche. As well as the flexible layout, the ceilings are high, the internal doors are full height, the windows are big, and the exterior is clad in black panels. What's more, they can be constructed in a matter of weeks rather than the years conventional building methods can take.
At the moment this latest terrace and its two-storey sister terrace nearby are surrounded by muddy building work: a garden square that is being landscaped at the back of the development's pocket-handkerchief-sized gardens, and a block of flats going up in front. But once this area matures, the hoUSe scheme should sit pretty.
Urban Splash and shedkm have more hoUSe sites earmarked for northern cities, as well as an appealing mansion block model. 'We would like to build this in lots of locations,' says Urban Splash's co-founder and creative director Jonathan Falkingham.
INFORMATION
For more information visit the shedkm website
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
-
Aindrea Emelife on bringing the Nigerian Pavilion to life at the Venice Biennale 2024
Curator Aindrea Emelife has spearheaded a new wave of contemporary artists at the Venice Biennale’s second-ever Nigerian Pavilion. Here, she talks about what the world needs to learn about African art
By Ugonna-Ora Owoh Published
-
All aboard: Azimut moor a yacht in the heart of Milan
With Azimut's Mooring by the Moon, Michele De Lucchi and AMDL Circle provide insight into the philsophy of the Seadeck Series with an immersive installation at Bagni Misteriosi
By Cristina Kiran Piotti Published
-
A low-energy farmhouse provides a rural escape in North Carolina
This low-energy farmhouse is a net zero architectural re-set for a Californian client, an East Coast relocation for a more engaged and low-key lifestyle
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Timber-framed Wimbledon house is a minimalist, low-energy affair
A new timber-framed Wimbledon house is designed to blend into its traditional surroundings with a neat brick façade, careful massing and pared back interiors
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
London Science Museum’s Energy Revolution gallery champions sustainable exhibition design
The Energy Revolution gallery opens at London’s Science Museum, exploring decarbonisation through sustainable exhibition design by Unknown Works
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
This South Downs house stands as a testament to the value of quiet refinement
At one with the landscape, a South Downs house uses elements of quintessential country villas and midcentury gems with modern technologies
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Ash Tree House offers a contextual approach to a north London site
Ash Tree House by Edgley Design is a modern family home in a north London conservation area's backyard site
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
In memoriam: John Miller (1930-2024)
We remember John Miller, an accomplished British architect and educator who advocated a quiet but rigorous modernism
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
River Wing at Clare College responds to its historic Cambridge heritage
University of Cambridge opens its new River Wing on Clare College Old Court, uniting modern technology with historic design
By Clare Dowdy Published
-
Camden Workshop offers flexible family space in a transformed north London warehouse
Camden Workshop, a transformed industrial space in north London, was designed by architects McLaren Excell to combine residential space and a creative studio for its owners
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
The Haydon shows off its dramatic stepped volume and triplex penthouse
The Haydon, designed by architects Acme, reveals the triplex penthouse within its dramatic, stepped volume in London’s Aldgate
By Ellie Stathaki Published