Judging Panel Special Commendation

Client: Islington Council / Homes for Islington

Islington Council hosted a design competition for an infill housing development at Vaudeville Court in Finsbury Park. Metaphorm’s design proposal identifies social inclusion through attractive, well-designed places as its aim, in order to promote neighbourliness and ‘good city streets’ which in turn brings about social cohesion. The proposed design centres around a semi-private linear courtyard shared by the residents, off which the building blocks of the street, the house, and the private garden are so arranged to create instances of gradual transition from public to private space, providing the setting for a variety of communal activities while maintaining the privacy of each household.

The design is structured around the creation of a triangular physical and visual connection by the location of the outdoor spaces in relation to the house: the garden to one side and the communal linear courtyard to the front. The urban space relationships formed are:

1. house-to-garden: living rooms and kitchens extended outdoors
2. house-to-courtyard: parents supervise children in safe playing area and neighbours can meet
3. garden-to-courtyard: private outdoor activity can spill into semi-public domain to include neighbours

By creating a focus towards the courtyard, this urban configuration typology is endowed with an independence from an existing street front and with flexibility and reproduction potential across a variety of sites.

A mix of trees, grass, and varying paving patterns defines the character the communal linear courtyard. Its purpose is to create a safe central amenity space where neighbours gather to socialist and where children play together. While the houses overlook the courtyard, privacy is maintained between houses through careful positioning of massing and orientation of windows.

Each house is accessed through its garden. Angled recesses on the ground floor create protected entrance alcoves to the gardens and a connection between the living and kitchen spaces of the house and the shared courtyard. Each entrance is marked by a tree on a circular grass patch and by a change in paving pattern. Sliding screens with louvres offer the option of partial or complete separation from the shared courtyard.

Twelve family sized dwellings have been created, comprising seven houses, three duplexes and two apartments, including one fully wheelchair accessible unit. In total, 67 habitable rooms have been created. All dwellings benefit from combinations of private amenity spaces in forms of gardens, terraces, and winter gardens, in addition to the shared courtyard.

The street façade design aims to establish continuity of streetfronts and townscape homogenisation, and contrasts with the more playful courtyard façades.

The massing of the proposal further addresses issues of urbanity:

1. dimensioning of massing in line with local development patterns;
2. integration of nature in shared courtyards through tree planting and private garden adjacency;
3. lower-rise massing to south, higher-rise massing to north, to maximise sunlight penetration;
4. fragmentation of massing to allow direct sunlight into all gardens and all living areas;
5. maximisation of passive solar heating through southerly aspect.

Metaphorm Architects received a Special Commendation from the competition judging panel.