Redcross Way

Location: London

Brick Manufacturers: Ketley Brick Company Ltd / Forterra PLC

Brick Names: Ketley Staffordshire Quarry Tiles (reclaimed) / Fletton Brick (reclaimed)

Architect: Sanchez Benton Architects

Brickwork Contractor: Romoda

Located close to Borough Market in London, Redcross Way is a single-family home that replaces a poorly insulated 1980s council house. The redevelopment was prompted in part by proposals within the Borough Yards project to introduce a new gate into the market, raising concerns about increased tourist footfall and reduced privacy along this mostly residential street. The project sought to mitigate these concerns by proposing a number of thresholds to the street that build physical and psychological distance from passers-by. The new building also tries to make sense of the original step in the terrace of council houses, anticipating the inevitable redevelopment of its neighbours. The building is almost entirely built using reclaimed or highly sustainable materials, including Ketley Staffordshire Quarry Tiles, Fletton bricks and UK grown green Douglas Fir.

Following a detailed retrofit study, it became clear that the existing 2.3m floor to ceiling heights were a critical limiting factor, being spatially mean and preventing natural light from reaching the centre of the plan. The original building was taken apart with care, and materials were classified and sold back to reclamation yards or donated for charity projects. To minimise embodied carbon in the new build, the existing ground floor slab was also reused as part of the new house, eliminating the need for new concrete to go into the ground.

The building, by nature of the plot, is a compact volume with two facades as party walls, and exposed front and rear facades, its front façade being Southeast facing, and its rear façade Northwest facing. Both front and rear facades are made out of double leaf masonry laid on lime mortar, with a dense internal leaf to add thermal mass to the building and dampen temperature fluctuations. The sustainability approach to the building is defined by two objectives: 1) to utilise reclaimed and reused materials throughout, and 2) a fabric first approach that reduces the need for heating and cooling to a minimum. All heating is provided via low temperature underfloor heating loops, one of them coiled around a central GGBS column that becomes a contemporary hearth. The first floor is organised as an interconnected series of rooms, and at ground floor, an open stair that lands at the centre of the plan allows each room to exploit the full width of the site creating long views and spatial generosity.