Edgley Design - Godson Street

Edgley Design

• 2016

This project consists of a group of six mixed-use buildings, with commercial lower floors and residential flats above, replicating the local context of flats above shops. The commercial elements open up to the street, with free-form living spaces wrapped in brass above.
The saw-tooth residential forms channel views down the street for privacy reasons, their varying forms expressing their differing identities while reflecting the varied roofscape of the context.

Godson Street is a Community Joint Venture project between Edgley Design, CKS partnership and Spaced Out Architecture.
The brief was to create a mixed use building which would meet the varying needs of the partners, expressing the individuality of stakeholders while bringing this ‘difference’ together in a harmonious overall scheme.

The overall concept was to re-imagine the Georgian houses that once occupied the site, with a lightwell to the front and internal stair to one side. A rear lightwell creates a liveable basement. Large glazed windows to the ground floor enliven a once forgotten backstreet.

The layout has been inverted, with bedrooms to the lower levels where a more closed relationship to the street does not affect internal amenity. The living spaces are moved to the upper floors, where larger windows can give light and views out without compromising privacy.

The living spaces are articulated as a metal clad, sculptural form that has been folded out of the front elevation to create windows and views to the south, maintaining privacy across the street. An angled roof creates north facing rooflights to the second floor. The faceted form of the roof is derived from a rights to light analysis of neighbouring residences.

Five mixed use buildings are created, with commercial space to ground and basement and residential apartments above, and a townhouse to the north.