CASE STUDY 02: IROKO HOUSING
South Bank, London, England
PROJECT OVERVIEW Iroko Housing at Coin Street is a mixed-use housing development in South Bank, London, developed by the Coin Street Community Builders. The architect, Haworth Tompkins, designed the scheme that combines affordable rental units and co-operative building units with private or shared ownership. The project site is an urban block located behind the National Theatre on London’s South Bank, with the north side flanked by large office blocks and the south bordered by the busy Stamford Street. To the east is another housing project and to the west is a site earmarked for a sports center with high-density housing.
PROGRAM
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The challenge for inner-city housing is to reconcile the civic presence demanded by the urban setting with the privacy demanded by the domestic function. The Iroko Housing project is comprised of 59 homes, of which 32 are five-bedroom houses, 6 are threebedroom maisonettes (an apartment occupying two or more floors of a larger building and often having its own outside entrance) and 21 are one- and twobedroom maisonettes and flats (including one flat designed for a wheelchair user) designed around a communal garden. On the ground level are two corner shops and limited residential parking (21
spaces). The public parking garage (200 spaces), below grade, generates revenue for the residents. A clear typology was needed on such a prominent site, one that plainly defines both the public and the residential areas. In response to this, the dwellings are arranged as terraces onto the streets forming three sides of a courtyard. The center of the site provides a secure communal space in the form of a large landscaped garden with designated play areas. The fourth side of the courtyard is completed by the Stamford Street Neighborhood Center.
PROJECT FEATURES The layout of the scheme is based on a perimeter block or courtyard format with a central space that functions as a communal amenity including children’s play areas. The courtyard space is carefully divided for different uses by low concrete walls and level changes. All flats and maisonettes have large balconies and every bedroom overlooking the courtyard has a balcony. The balconies are divided by vertical translucent screens for privacy. The materials and architectural treatment acknowledge the public and private faces of the development, addressing the street and the courtyard in very different ways. The street facades are expressed as simple brick screens with deep window reveals, while the courtyard elevations are a more informal composition of gardens and timber clad balconies,