DARBISHIRE PLACE, WHITECHAPEL PEABODY HOUSING
JANUARY 2015
We have completed our housing project for the Peabody Trust in John Fisher Street in Whitechapel, London. 13 families now occupy the building. It was built on an empty site in Henry Derbyshire’s Peabody Estate from 1870. The building is made from brick with deep precast concrete reveals, framing large windows and balconies. It is a real pleasure to see the balconies occupied by plants, bikes and carpets; people hanging out the windows watching their children playing in the courtyard below.
ATHLETES OCCUPY OLYMPIC HOUSING
AUGUST 2012
In the run up to the London Olympics, the Athletes’ Village housing block N15, is now occupied with athletes’ preparing for the games. Niall McLaughlin Architects have designed the external skin of the housing block on a ‘chassis’ designed by Glen Howells. The facade samples fragments of the Elgin Marbles, scanned from the British Museum and converted into 3D pre-cast panels depicting galloping horses from the Parthenon Frieze.
Niall McLaughlin commented on the practice’s approach to the unusual commission in Building Design. ‘I was very interested in the principle of the facade being delaminated from the building’s core form. Usually it’s something one tries to swim against to retain a sense of ‘authenticity’, but here we decided to embrace it….I like the idea of setting Ruskin’s conception of the craftsman against the absolute Taylorism of the construction process. Through digital reproduction, these deracinated stones are now doubly lost.’ (Building Design 27.01.2012)