PROJECT
Hoxton Press Towers
CLIENT
The London Borough of Hackney - Anthology
ARCHITECT
CONTRACTOR
Swift Brickwork Contractors Limited
FACING BRICKS
PROCESSING
Stacked bond, colour joint
Photos:
© Patrick Clarke
© Peter Landers
© Emanuelis Stasaitis
Two impressive hexagonal towers in London with facing bricks NATURE10 Brick E and Brick S
Karakusevic Carson Architects and David Chipperfield Architects designed Hoxton Press Towers in London’s Hackney
Hoxton Press on the Colville Estate, a housing development in Hackney, in East London was designed by world famous architects David Chipperfield Architects and Karakusevic Carson Architects.
A new design approach was deemed appropriate for the prominent site facing Shoreditch Park, which was earmarked by Hackney Council for competition. Karakusevic Carson invited David Chipperfield Architects to collaborate on a new concept design and the two practices won the competition in 2012, drawing on their respective expertise. The collaboration continued through to completion and the result is a testament to both Karakusevic Carson’s extensive experience in high quality housing design and David Chipperfield Architects’ rigorous and explorative approach to
architecture.
The style of the two towers can be related to the brutalist architecture from the fifties. Characteristic for this style is the blocky, geometric and repetitive shapes.
The two, hexagonal, brick-faced buildings are 16 and 20 storeys respectively and contain 198 apartments. Carefully positioned on an irregular plot, they create a landscaped space in between that acts as a gateway between the wider estate and the park.
Handmade bricks of a different colour are used on each tower. A single brick type, NATURE10, is used throughout; fired once to create the red Brick E on the eastern tower and fired twice for the blue/grey Brick S on the western one. The buildings are rotated in relation to one another to maximise daylight, views, and to minimise overlooking and loss of light to neighbouring new buildings. The result is a dynamic composition that addresses its urban context in all directions.
The division of the two towers is as follows: the two first floors are studios, the other storeys consist of six apartments and the upper storeys provide three penthouses. Both towers have eye-catching vaulted ceilings on the ground floor. The largest tower (East) contains a large space at ground level that is used as a community café and the smaller tower (West) has an entrance to the underground car park and storage for bicycles for both buildings.
FACINGS BRICKS: NATURE10 BRICK E AND BRICK S
The objective was to give the two towers different identities with the use of brick colours and number of floors. The brickwork used was our Hand-Made facing bricks Nature10 Brick E (red brick) and Brick S (dark grey brick). The facing bricks are made from the same clay, but the dark grey brick is fired twice.
Adopting a stacked bond, accentuates the strong architectural character of the two buildings. Furthermore, time was taken to get the right colour of mortar, one that matches the colour of each brick used, offering a sculptural appearance and solidity to the towers. The subtle colour variation offered by our hand-made bricks strengthens this view.
RECESSED BRICK-LINED BALCONIES PROVIDE SHELTERED OUTDOOR SPACE
A unique element to the buildings is the stunning balconies. All the balconies are full wrapped in our bricks; from the soffits to the floor. The structural frame of the towers gives each balcony panoramic views of the city. While the solid brick upstands give enough privacy to the residents and define the sculptural volume of the two towers.
Therefor it was of great importance that the floors of the balconies would maintain a unity with the brickworks of the entire building. In collaboration with the architects Brickworks Vande Moortel produced a Brick Paver with a reduced water absorption. As a result the balcony floors contain the right technical properties as well as the expected look and feel.
BRICK SLIPS
Brick slips of our facing bricks Brick S and Brick E where used in combination the SafeSecure® brick cladding system of Bulmer brick Cutting. A system that had just been introduced to the market but knew its first large scale use on this project. This system enables the use at height of vertical, horizontal and inverted soffit brick clad panels. The SafeSecure® brick cladding panels are employed in the hanging balcony soffits, and arched curved internal vaulted ceilings to the ground floor foyers & basement garage entrances. These vaulted soffits bridge the core and the first-floor slabs and allow the exterior brick clad façades of the towers to appear as a continuum of the vaults and the nine supporting brick clad columns at the base of the building.
Click here to find out how the invention of the system and collaboration on this project took place.
MULTI-STOREY DEVELOPMENT OF THE YEAR
The Premier Guarantee (Home Warranty and Insurance Providers) held in 2018 their annual Excellence Awards to celebrate the highest quality development from the past year. The award for Multi-Storey Development of the Year went to the Anthology Hoxton Press.
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