Cornwall House
Residential Retrofit Single-family Project
Mixed-Use Civic Retail Project
Residential Co-living Masterplanning
Shoreditch Graffiti Centre
Creek Wharf
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Location:
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Shoreditch Graffiti Centre
Civic & Retail
201-207 Shoreditch High St, E1 6LG
878.36m2
Brief Design a hybrid civic centre celebrating an activity in relation to the context and key interests derived from the site. The centre must include a temporary pop-up retail experience, with a permanent civic function. The proposal will act, as to allow a variety of people to participate within its function and engage with the context while celebrating the cultural diversity of Shoreditch.
Proposal
Shoreditch Graffiti Centre celebrates the area’s prominent Graffiti character. It brings together people of different skill levels with an interest and passion for the art form. A variety of spaces cater to the different stages of graffiti such as lasercutting rooms, studio spaces and graffiti studios. The modular structures are envolped with a lattice frame used for artisits and enthusiasts to climb and graffiti the exteror of the modules. The pop-up food market also serves as a gathering space for the community that can be converted to exhibition spaces for the art to be displayed and admired by passers-by.
Concept Model
Taking influence from the neighbouring Grade II listed Braithwaite arches, designed by John Braithwaite in 1840, the external facade of the ground and first floor emulate the historic industrial vernaular associated with Shoreditch, often used by grafitti artists as a canvas for their art form to be on display to the public.
Technical Diagrams
The modularisation of architectural compenents within the proposal allows for
and
Terrace
Exhibition Gallery
Lifts
Toilets
Pop-Up Food Market
Food Trucks
Exhibition Gallery
Courtyard
Lifts
Staff Room
Social Gathering Space
Toilets
Ground
Modules
LasercuttingRoom
GroupStudio
IndividualGraffitiStudio
GroupGraffitiStudio
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Cornwall House
Retrofit Mixed-Use Residential
33-34 Cornwall Rd, SE1 8TJ
181.57m2
Brief Design a residential proposal that responds to the evolving needs of new urban dwellers in the context of the climate emergency and the Covid-19 pandemic. The project should reflect the societal shifts prompted by these crises, addressing environmental, humanitarian, and spatial challenges through innovative architecture.
Proposal
Cornwall House reimagines urban family living in a post-pandemic world, where rising living costs and changing values call for thoughtful, flexible design. This retrofit project prioritises sustainability and affordability, employing low-impact materials and efficient construction techniques.
At its core, a sunlit courtyard acts as a vital threshold between the home and an integrated commercial bakery—balancing privacy, community interaction, and economic resilience. The design celebrates adaptability, daylight, and spatial generosity, offering a resilient model for living within the dense fabric of modern city life.
Post-pandemic Living
With social dynamics changing, a new way of living has emerged and shaped our requirements for pandemic and post pandemic living. Cornwall House supports a new sustainable and progressive way of living in times of social, economical and environmental crisis.
The COVID-19 pandemic within the built environment has posed many challenges to our daily routines and way of life that has altered our needs within the residential sector. With the introduction of remote working and home-schooling during the pandemic, ways of life and the space we require on a domestic scale has changed.
New Era of Living
A new era of domestic architecture has emerged post pandemic emphasising flexibility, wellness, and functionalitywith adaptable spaces for work, exercise, and leisure, with an increased focus on natural light, ventilation, and connections to the outdoors.
Spatial Arrangement
The bakery, front of house and commercial kitchen where bakery classes are held face Cornwall Road, while the quieter residential spaces are set back, separated by a central courtyard that maintains visual connection. A shared first-floor landing connects the master and children’s bedrooms and bathroom, all linked by a south-facing walkway that brings natural light.
Theed Street
Theed
The bakery opens to a main circulation route so will draw more commuters. The bakery and public living space open to a courtyard limiting privacy of the residential private space from the public bakery.
The scale of each volume is fairly proportional to the amount of space needed for its use. Situating the bakery further back from Cornwall Road, risks the bakery not being noticed as much to passer-bys.
The subterranean space with private residential space that’s for private use is hidden from passer-bys and allow access to greenery, while the bakery is on Cornwall Road attract more customers.
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CORNWALLRD
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Technical Design
Cornwall House features a front-facing commercial kitchen and service wing, with private family living set back from the road for quiet and privacy. A central courtyard links both wings, maintaining an open-plan flow. Bedrooms, including the master suite, are housed on the upper level.
Plasterboard
Vapour Control Layor
Insulation
Vertical CLT Cladding
Horizontal Timber Batten
Vertical Timber Batten Flooring
Dry Sand/Cement Mix Sterling Board
Heating Pipes Insulation
Structural Joists
CLT Cladding Materiality
The use of cross-laminated timber is a sustainable and energy efficient use for the addition of the first floor. Not only does it compliment the existing brick facade on the ground floor, but it is also great at thermal insulation which has added benefits for the residents in terms of reduced energy usage and cost.
Plasterboard
Insulation
Vapour
Vertical
Horizontal
Corten Steel Materiality
Corten steel over the front wing is low maintenance and saves energy and cost associated with maintenance. It is prefabrication offsite and pre-oxidised ensuring precision and easier assembly on site. It is 100% recyclable which all contribute to my carbon-neutral strategy for a better environment.
Welded weathering steel cladding
Plasterboard
Insulation
Insulation
Acoustic insulation
Steel
Existing Brick
Retrofit vs Rebuild
Reducing operational and embodied carbon emissions from buildings and construction is essential. Preserving the exisitng brick facade is more environmentally friendly than new construction as it makes use of existing structures and materials, reducing waste and conserving embodied energy.
Outer
Double
Medium
Cavity
Retaining
Plasterboard
Creek Wharf
Typology:
Location:
Size: Residential Co-Living Masterplan Lanrick Rd, Aberfeldy Village, E14 0JF 181.57m2
Brief Develop a residential complex for a collective group of artists and craftsmen that encourages positive social interaction within the complex and with the surrounding neighbourhood, while defining a new path for co-living that anticipates the environmental and societal changes in the future with their spatial needs in account.
Proposal Creek Wharf introduces a new co-living typology centred on creativity, collaboration, and craft. Designed as a shell-and-core masterplan, it provides residents with a structural framework and the freedom to shape their homes around their practice, personality, and changing needs, making home-making a creative, participatory process. Rather than relying on conventional amenities, the project fosters community through shared values. Communal workshops, flexible studios, and shared courtyards encourage cross-disciplinary exchange, creating a vibrant, self-sustaining ecosystem of skills and support.
With modular layouts and accessible services, the design remains open-ended, able to adapt to evolving lifestyles, social patterns, and environmental challenges. Creek Wharf blurs the lines between work, home, and community, framing living as a shared, generative act shaped by the people within it.
Location and Connectivity
The site is located in the Borough of Tower Hamlets, adjacent to the Bow Creek section of the River Lea, which forms a natural boundary with the Borough of Newham. While the nearby A13 East India Dock Road bridge provides strong vehicular connectivity, pedestrian access remains limited, making travel to Canning Town Station less convenient for residents and highlighting the need for improved local connectivity.
London City Island
Aberfeldy Village River Lea
Poplar Riverside
East India Dock Road
Canning Town Station
Proposed Co-living Model
The proposed co-living concept focuses on creating socially sustainable and flexible community living that harmoniously integrates the habitants with local surrounding context.
Quinta Monroy
ByELEMENTAL
The initial construction connects 2-story blocks around 4 shared courtyards and is designed as a skeletal framework which residents expand in the future. Workshops then help residents to construction of the second part of their homes. This methodology saves cost, gives flexibility forexpansion, and creates communal spaces.
Precedent Study
House for Artists
Co-living
The design aims to support the forming of communities both inside the building and within the local area, through shared entrance patios and courtyard, and a street-facing public space.
Resident artists can use the ground floor as work studios for their own practices as well as for the public programme, while the apartments offer co-housing possibilities.
Each set of three apartments shares a communal outdoor space scaled for eating and working together, as well as access. One floor of apartments has double doors in the party walls, creating optional and flexible shared living possibilities, such as parties, childcare, or co-working.
ByApparataArchitects
BuildingProgramme
Unit Types
Precedent Study
Apartmentswithdoubledoorsofferingflexiblesharedlivingpossibilities
LanrickRd
RiverLea
PortreeSt
ObanSt
FortroseCl
ObanSt
Central Park
Sky Bridge Studios
Family Townhomes
Family Townhomes
Townhomes
Sky Bridge
RiverLea
A sense of community and connectivity can be explored through the lens of co-living where habitants come together to interact over a common activity or interest. Compared to traditional ideas of housing which clearly define public and private spaces, co-living redefines these parameters of what is public and what is private.
Proposed is a shell and core residential development with workshop spaces and studio spaces for residents to come together as a community to fit out their homes in an artistic and creative way. Construction materials and interior furnishings are transported to the site using barges that access the site through a dynamic waterfront promenade.
The future of the development has the potential to be developed further once the homes are completed and the workshop spaces can be transformed into necessary retail and community facilities. With the area along the river Lea mostly derelict and in need of regeneration, this model of affordable, efficient and collaborative living could be seen flourishing along the River Lea.
Deck Pontoon
Solar panel shaded parking
Modularity and Sustainability
The residential units are designed as modular components optimized for off-site prefabrication, enabling efficient transport, rapid assembly, and flexible on-site arrangement. Standardized dimensions and structural systems ensure precision, reduce construction time, and improve quality control.
Prefabrication significantly lowers on-site labor, material waste, and embodied carbon compared to conventional methods. Built in controlled factory settings, the modules minimize disruption in dense urban environments and reduce emissions from construction logistics.
Photovoltaic Sky Light
Floor Plans
1 Bedroom Apartment (2 adults + 1 child)
Studio Apartment (1-2 adults)
The waterfront of the River Lea, part of the Lower Lea Valley Opportunity Area, has been identified as an area of London that has the potential to attract young talented artists and craftsmen as outlined in the council’s opportunity area framework. With an increase in working individuals and families moving into the area, there has been a large demand for housing that caters to the needs of this demographic. With this, the council has incorporated key infrastructure into its plan to link different areas both in connectivity and a sense of community.