This residential development in London is located on a prominent site facing Kensington Gardens, bounded by Victoria Road and De Vere Gardens. The project comprises 97 high-quality residential units and includes the internal reorganisation of the existing site and three new buildings facing Kensington Road, Victoria Road, and Canning Passage respectively. It also involves the reuse and incorporation of the nineteenth-century terraced house façades along Victoria Road and De Vere Gardens, which sit within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s De Vere Gardens Conservation Area.
The project is a single development broken down into six buildings; three new buildings and three that include the re-use of the nineteenth-century façades. The new buildings follow the massing and heights of the original terrace. A grand open loggia wraps around the apartments facing Kensington Gardens. On either side of the loggia, the façades of the new buildings intensify in rhythm and architectural language as they approach the historic façades. Internally, a series of courtyards connected by a continuous passage link the various buildings. Whilst not publicly accessible, the courtyards provide the surrounding apartments with natural light and a visual connection to an internal garden.
The new buildings on Kensington Road and Victoria Road are formed of a post-tensioned reinforced concrete structure. The Kensington Road building is clad in handset Portland stone at ground level and each floor above is defined by a thin band of Portland stone with solid bronze balustrades and windows. The exterior of the new building on Canning Passage is made of solid brick similar to the surrounding original brick stock and is articulated by strips of reconstituted stone at each floor level. All the new buildings have their own individual street entrance and the previously blocked entrance porticos in the retained façades have been reinstated.
The apartments themselves vary in size, differentiated primarily through their position within the development – 29 of the apartments are within the three new buildings and 68 are located behind the retained façades. Working within this framework, the apartment layouts have been generated from the existing arrangement of windows and party walls and take the form of a sequence of clearly defined and interrelated rooms.
Date:2010–2015
Gross floor area:39,600 m²
Client:De Vere Estates Ltd.
Architect:David Chipperfield Architects London
Director:Louise Dier, Oliver Ulmer
Project leader:Ryan Theodore
Project leader envelope:Martin Reynolds
Project leader interiors:Andrew Hapgood
Project architects:Richard Eden, Elena Dueñas Lete, Gabriel Sánchiz
Conservation architect:Julian Harrap Architects
Landscape architect:Gillespies
Structural engineer:Buro Happold Structures Ltd.
Façade engineer:Buro Happold Façade Engineering Ltd.
Services engineer:Hoare Lea
Quantity surveyor:Gardiner & Theobald LLP
General contractor:Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd.
Photography:Simon Menges, Max Creasy