London or sustainable development urban planning

Design of N26 residential buildings by the agency London-based Rijke Marsh Morgan Architects in accordance with the urban planning of a sports village in London.

Strasbourg/Paris, June 2013 – During the international sports competitions in Paris in 1924 and Berlin in 1936, it was common to house athletes in temporary buildings that were demolished at the end of the events. This is a different story today with this truly urban planning project in London. In addition to meeting the specifications, the long-term development of the regions concerned is a key issue. This objective is reflected in the architectural and urban planning choices and dictates optimized energy concepts, such as the use of materials consistent with the principles of sustainable development. If London was at the heart of the major sporting events of 2012, it was largely thanks to specifications that enabled the redevelopment of a deprived area of Stratford, to the east of the London metropolitan area.

Victorian urban planning

The park and its surroundings were to be inspired by the Victorian model of garden cities and the ideal city. Therefore, the amphitheater, the marketplace, the baths, and the academy are essential, not to mention the required spaces for commerce. The sports village block corresponds to the abbreviation N26 on the master plan. Several buildings are grouped around a carefully designed inner courtyard covering a level parking area. The 8- to 10-story buildings are oriented towards the main street and partially equipped with commercial premises on the ground floor. Upstairs are the apartments occupied by the athletes. Largely glazed verandas connect the buildings and emphasize the alignment of the facade with the street. Passersby's gaze is naturally lost in the green inner courtyards, surrounded by three-story residential buildings.

A new face for social housing

Despite a rather restrictive specification, the 17 London architects were able to combine different architectural languages to design the entire neighborhood: the interaction of materials and their uses creates varied streets. The objectives of this architectural project were to emphasize the personalization of facades and correctly transcribe the construction requirements. This challenge was made all the more complex by the fact that the architects from the Rijke Marsh Morgan (dRMM) agency joined the neighborhood's design team at a stage where a large part of the construction criteria had already been validated and the infrastructure was intangible. Furthermore, the guidelines issued limited the room for maneuver, particularly in terms of quality of service and expenditure. This difficulty forced the architects to address numerous points of detail, overcoming a particularly restrictive context. Without departing from the narrow framework of this urban planning concept, the architects managed to preserve their creative potential while bringing about a new type of social housing. In public spaces, the interweaving of forms gives a sense of community while preserving individual identities.

Ceramic facades, a guarantee of sustainable diversity

To counter the uniformity of prefabricated concrete facades on some buildings, dRMM architects emphasized their specific approach to color while providing a sustainable response to construction requirements. For block N26, they opted for terracotta cladding from Moeding Keramikfassaden GmbH. This is the large-format Longoton panel, which is up to 3 meters long. The special quality of this system, available in a multitude of formats, tones, and surface effects, allowed the architects to adopt a singular approach to both color and light. To the north, the cladding starts with an almost white tone, then the colors gradually darken in stages to a slate gray tone tending towards black. The ceramic materials, laid vertically at floor height, alternate with fully glazed French windows, sometimes surrounded by a guardrail, sometimes opening onto a balcony.

Opting for a ventilated façade protected by Moeding ceramic cladding also means meeting the highest thermal insulation requirements. As for the mass-dyed ceramic materials, they meet all the conditions for long-term impact while minimizing maintenance. Given the limited scope for architects, the use of a low-weight façade system appeared to be the most appropriate solution, also allowing for significant cost reductions, a significant advantage. Thanks to the savings achieved, the façades could be enlivened by balconies equipped with glass railings or by full-height glass French doors with railings made of the same material. By varying the distribution of the balconies from one floor to the next, the architects were able to nuance the monolithic effect of the façade. The floors, highlighted by horizontal aluminum bands, contribute to this architectural harmony, and interesting relief effects were created without exceeding the allocated budget. This complex, clad in modern materials and equipped with intelligent solutions, prefigures the sustainable construction of tomorrow.

 Technical Data

Project : N26, Stratford City North, Sports Village, London

Client : Lend Lease Developments Ltd.

Masterplan : Fletcher Priest Architects, London

N26 Architects : de Rijke Marsh Morgan Architects, London

Project management : Lend Leas Developments Ltd.

Facade planning : de Rijke Marsh Morgan Architects, London

Facade manufacturer : MOEDING Keramikfassaden GmbH, Marklkofen

Structural planning : WSP group limited, London

H/L/S planning : Hoare Lea Partnership, Bristol

Acoustics : Hann Tucker Associates, London

Floor area : 20.000 m2

Gross floor area of ​​the building : 4300 m3, 8 levels including 2 underground

Floors : 3 – 11

Delivery : 2011