Jamestown Road
Landscape and public realm design for a residential and student housing development in Camden, London. Generous external amenity is provided which optimises biodiversity and activates the street
We were commissioned by Regal London to design the landscape, public realm, and street frontage for a residential and student housing scheme in Camden, London.
The scope covered RIBA Stages 0-3, culminating in a planning application submission. New Practice worked in collaboration with Context Office, a design and research practice specialising in public space. Overall architectural design was led by Morris+Company.
Visualisation by Secchi Smith for Morris+Company
The proposal for Jamestown Road consists of two distinct, but connected, blocks. One provides 27 affordable homes and the other 187 student accommodation rooms. Each block is arranged around its own biodiverse courtyard, creating generous outdoor amenity for residents. Flexible commercial uses on the ground floor provide active street frontage and are carefully designed to allow views into the greenery from the street.
The residential courtyard garden is a richly verdant south-facing space for relaxation, socialising and play. It balances a number of amenity uses while maximising biodiversity for visual amenity, environmental benefit and privacy.
Visualisation by Secchi Smith for Morris+Company
The student courtyard has a woodland atmosphere, providing gathering spaces under canopies and trees - for both students and members of the public using the commercial space.
Visualisation by Secchi Smith for Morris+Company
New Practice were also responsible for the public realm and streetscape strategy. The proposal is located on a prominent corner site. It optimises the currently brownfield site by improving its relationship to the wider area with active ground floor frontages. It is an exemplar mixed use sustainable scheme with open spaces which contributes positively to the local area.
Our hands-on collaborative approach to working with Morris+Company ensured seamlessly integrated architectural and landscape thresholds. We ran a series of workshops with Regal and Morris+Company throughout the design process. These first established the design principles then were used to push forward, test and detail the emerging concept design. We acted as ‘critical friends’ on the ground-floor architectural layout where it interfaced with the street, entrance sequence and landscape.
