engineering.
Amin Taha Architects spotted a single-storey delicatessen on Farringdon Road and realised the site had the potential for residential accommodation above.
Five-storey residential development above an existing café
Achieving that potential called for considerable design and engineering ingenuity; the road is a Transport for London Red Route, the Metropolitan line running beneath causes ground complexities, and new building regulations make acoustic standards in residential buildings more onerous than previously. On top of that the design had to evoke a suitably contemporary image for this generic 21st-century urban site notably in the window pattern and Corten steel cladding.
Ground and party wall conditions meant that piling was the only possible strategy for foundations, while a frame of steel columns and precast concrete planks condensed the depth of the floor sandwich, with appropriate sound insulation, enough to get five floors above ground within the overall height limit, making a viable number of units and leaving the basement and ground levels for the delicatessen. The structure also allowed for windows to wrap around the corner with loads carried on long cantilevers.
2005 RIBA Award
2005 AJ First Building Award
TTP
Two
'Radiant Lines'
A Brick
One
The Stephen A. Schwarzman
Albert Bridge House.
Edgar's
Luton Power Court
St Pancras
Wind Sculpture
Sentosa
The
Liverpool
Georges Malaika
Cherry
Khudi
Haus
10 Lewis
'Drift'
The
Seratech
Apex
UCB
Manor Road
17 Charterhouse
Brent Cross 
100
Brent Cross 
Chapter