Westmead, a 100% affordable housing project in Westbourne Park, West London.
Providing 65 homes and delivered for Westminster City Council in collaboration with Willmott Dixon Construction the project has achieved AECB CarbonLite certification. This recognises the projects strong, quantifiable focus on reducing energy use; improving how the homes perform in everyday – an ethos that was central to the design and protected through construction by the client and wider team. Following Passihaus principles, the AECB certification shows Westmead as a exemplar in delivering sustainable and affordable homes without compromising on architectural quality and viability.
Westmead is six storeys however presents a more modest four storey frontage to the north and south streets by taking advantage of the sites naturally falling topography and a carefully configured upper floor setback. The surrounding context is incredibly varied in style adjacent to conservation areas, late 20th century housing, grey brick church accommodation block directly adjacent, and a listed deep-red brick church nearby. The design responds to this variety of styles and materiality, and to a complex site including its level changes, and several retained mature trees.
Westmead addresses and provides activity to the street by giving priority placing maisonettes with front gardens at street level. The lower two floors on the main elevation have paired entrances with a vertical rhythm along the street echoing neighbouring conservation area terraces. The maisonette entrances are visually similar to the main communal entrance and tied in with the upper floors with stacked semi-recessed balconies above.
The material palette of the project is restrained and elegant with pink metalwork and warm red terracotta toned reconstituted stone complementing the multi-toned light brickwork. Variety and interest is added to the façade through use of textured brick bonding, areas of opacity and openness along the balconies, and material variation around entrances and within reveals that read as you move along the street.
Landscape and public realm were central to the project’s contextual response. Through consultation with the local community, adjacent green spaces was expanded as part of the proposals, delivering wider neighbourhood benefits beyond the building itself. Improvements on Tavistock Crescent strengthen the approach from the station, enhance the setting of the listed St Luke’s Church and the improvements to the pedestrian link to the west of the building transform what was once a muddy, unsafe and poorly overlooked route into a safer, well-lit and tree-lined pedestrian connection used by families, cyclists, school-children and neighbours.
