12 Wellesley Avenue, London W6 0UH
Description of The Project
The proposal comprises the demolition of the existing single storey car repair workshop and the development of 3 no. three-storey houses to the north front of the property and a two-storey back-land house in the south-west part of the site. The development is located in the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham with a total GIA of 777 sqm.
We previously obtained consent for a new office building on the site, but it was always the client’s preferred option to develop the site for residential use. This was also supported by local residents. This was initially resisted by the local authority, as a matter of policy, to protect the site’s commercial use. Over time, however, there was a shift in permitted development policy, which allowed consent to be eventually granted for residential use.
After several design studies, it was felt that the optimum use of the site was for three houses aligned along the front of the site on Wellseley Avenue, with a smaller back-land house in the south-west corner to exploit the bulge in the site in that area. The gross internal areas of the three front houses range from 175-230 sq m; two of the houses are six-bedroom and the third is four-bedroom. The smaller house at the rear is two-bedroom with a GIA of 104 sq m.
The design of the front elevation seeks to integrate the three houses into one distinguished façade, whilst at the same time allowing all three houses to be read separately within the overall composition. In this way, a series of individual houses are unified in a single terrace, extending the typology of the terrace form in the adjacent properties to include this site. At the same time, the houses are clearly contemporary in idiom and character, rather than ersatz.
All three houses are set out in line, faced in painted render, with a common eaves line. The party walls separating the houses are identified by 300mm recesses within the main line of the façade. This creates a rhythm across the whole façade, and the pairing of two of the entrances adds a lively asymmetry.
The front doors are set back from the main façade line; together with shallow projecting roofs, porches are therefore created, mediating between the interior and the exterior. A unified roof, incorporating a hidden gutter shared along all four houses, is broken up by prominent dormers at second floor. The rear of the houses is modulated to protect the amenity of the adjacent houses.
The fourth house at the rear is single storey. This house is accessed via a pedestrian passageway from Wellesley Avenue that runs under house no. 3. It has an enclosed garden patio on the south side. The entrance hall and living spaces are enhanced by lantern lights over. These create a greater sense of height within the house, as well as allowing light into the centre of the plan. All the roofs across the house, including over the lantern lights, are sedum roofs, providing a green aspect from the surrounding properties, including from the other (taller) houses on the site.
The buildings in this part of the conservation area have an eclectic range of materials, including various types of brick, painted brickwork, render, timber paneling. Windows include both timber and metal. It is proposed to face the front elevations of these houses in painted render, to reference the buildings adjacent along Wellesley Avenue. The mansard roof is clad in metal panels in a dark grey to refer to the predominance of slate roofs in the locality. The dormers at second floor are clad in the same metal as the roofs. The windows frames will be metal frames. Inset Juliet balconies to the first-floor bedrooms are painted metal. The entrance porches are clad in metal to match the dormers and the main roof.
We have taken the proposals to RIBA Stage 3, and planning permission has been granted.
