Client: Brent City Council
Location: London
Completion: Phase 1 2021
Part of the wider South Kilburn regeneration programme, Unity Place is the redevelopment of the former Gloucester House and Durham Court buildings to deliver a new high-quality residentially led development of 235 new homes for social rent.
With the aim to address economic, physical and social issues that existed in the neighbourhood, the brief asked for the scheme to improve the environment and integrate the site with wider estate regeneration projects.
An FCBStudios masterplan set out medium rise buildings with robust, active street frontages, high quality landscape and gardens, a publicly accessible play space, car parking for existing residents and an energy centre serving the wider estate, with the ambition.
Our vision for the site, within which FCBStudios, Alison Brooks Architects and Gort Scott adopted a unified approach to deliver individual buildings, draws on terrace, mansion block and villa typologies typical of the local area, to create high-quality homes for Brent residents and reinforce the strong sense of local community.
With buildings ranging in scale between 4 and 8 storeys and frequent doors onto the street, a sense of urban domesticity becomes apparent that was lacking in the replaced buildings.
By creating a coherent urban block, strongly defined streetscapes and active frontages, the redevelopment restores the character and scale of this London neighbourhood and demonstrates how an appropriate level of density can be achieved without building above an eight-storey height.
Residents’ health and wellbeing is promoted through excellent levels of daylight and ventilation throughout homes, stairs and communal corridors.
High levels of acoustic separation, passive surveillance and resident privacy provide a sense of retreat. Larger than average private and shared external spaces and a range of biodiverse habitats provide a choice of outdoor environments for residents.
Consultant Architect: Alison Brooks Architects
Consultant Architect: Gort Scott
Landscape Architect: Grant Associates
Energy Consultant: Biodiversity by Design
Code for Sustainable Homes Assessment: Buro Happold
Wind Assessment: Buro Happold
Structural Engineer: Buro Happold
Civic Engineer: Buro Happold
M&E Engineer: Buro Happold
Flood Risk Assessment: Buro Happold
Daylight & Sunlight: Buro Happold
Quantity Surveyor: Sweett (UK) Ltd
CDMC: Sweett (UK) Ltd
