163 PECKHAM RYE, LONDON

The positive regeneration of the Peckham area in South East London is an on-going success story. 163 Peckham Rye is the redevelopment of a redundant industrial site into a seven to eight storey, high-density residential building topped by a copper clad penthouse pod. The development includes 74 apartments for private sale and affordable housing designed into the depth of the site to create private courtyards coupled with under-storey car parking.

The design offers a piece of modern intervention into what is a very broad and varied collection of buildings along Peckham Rye. There is no real sense of architectural order in the street with a complete mix of Victorian and later designs, mainly three storey early Victorian houses and seven to eight storey solid brick local authority apartments. These buildings are mainly utilitarian and not reflective of any particular style with all buildings being designed of their time.

Architecturally, the selection of materials and the design for the new building differs greatly from its neighbouring properties however this is not a gesture to modernism but rather an approach that develops historic ideas and looks to reinterpret them in a modern and fresh manner, bringing a depth and variety to the fabric and form of the buildings, but in a way that is respectful to its neighbours.

The design approach was to recognise the opportunity provided by the site location which is adjacent to open parkland. The solution was a building that sought not to dominate the streetscape but to contribute positively, introducing a new architectural vocabulary both in terms of shape, form and materials. This vocabulary of wall and window together with the use of materials is lively and vigorous; an intervention into the street which develops a focus with a different form with architectural layering and balconies