Details
Location: Haringey
Brick Manufacturer: Wienerberger Limited
Brick Name: Morado
Architect: Satish Jassal Architects
Brickwork Contractors: Alexander James Contracts / TP Brickwork Ltd
About the project
Edith Road is a 100% social-rented, net-zero carbon development of eight homes built on a disused garage site in Haringey, north London. Designed by Satish Jassal Architects, the project uses brick not only as a contextual material but as a key driver of the architectural character, performance, and civic quality of the scheme.
The selected primary façade material is a high-quality Morado red clay brick manufactured by Wienerberger and distributed by The Bespoke Brick Company, chosen for its compatibility with the surrounding Victorian terrace housing and its robust, low-maintenance performance and handmade appearance. Yet beyond contextual referencing, the project treats brick as a craft medium - articulated with rigour, restraint, and delight.
Each elevation is carefully composed with a variety of brick detailing techniques that enhance depth and rhythm. Subtle but precise gestures, such as vertical running bond, stepped brick piers with flat arches between them, lend the façades a refined texture and shadow play throughout the day. These details are not decorative afterthoughts but integrated strategies to delineate structure, frame apertures, and mediate scale between townhouses and apartments.
A particularly distinctive element is the use of recessed brick gables and vertical running bonds, which provide visual interest while marking threshold transitions between dwellings. At ground level, brick piers are interspersed with open metal railings with step brick walls to define the communal landscape boundary while preserving permeability and views. The crisp detailing reinforces a sense of civic generosity, offering privacy without retreating from the street.
This careful brickwork extends into the public realm and rear façades, ensuring consistency and quality across all elevations. Bricks are used not just as cladding but as a means to sculpt mass and surface alike. The restraint in material palette allows the complexity of bond and joint to take centre stage, reinforcing the project's ethos that architectural richness can be achieved through nuance rather than excess.
The material specification as a whole supports the project's environmental ambitions. The building envelope pairs thermally massive brick with high levels of insulation and airtightness, contributing to the scheme’s fossil-fuel-free, net-zero carbon status. Combined with air source heat pumps and rooftop photovoltaics, the envelope enables long-term energy efficiency with minimal operational carbon.
In the words of Satish Jassal: “Brick is a craft material that connects us to the earth, the context, and the people who build and inhabit these places.” This ethos is realised throughout Edith Road, where brick elevates affordable housing into architecture of lasting civic value - quietly anchoring the new homes within their historic urban setting through texture, detail, and material integrity.
