Boatyard apartments 30 Ferry Street, London E14 3DT
8 residential new build flats
Construction cost: £1.3m
Fourthspace designed and delivered a contemporary residential apartment block between 2007 and 2009. The building features 6 x 2 bed apartments and 2 x 3 bed apartments over a 6-storey simple load-bearing structure.
An outstanding site situated on a former boatyard and ferry point right on the River Thames over-looking Greenwich. The challenge was to optimise the compactness of the site and respond to the context and statutory demands of the site’s heritage.
The design solution involves a contemporary take on the wharf building typology that previously dominated the shipways and river buildings of the Port of London. It utilises a playful response to the familiar warehouse gable form and lets it act as a surface behind which the new uses are ‘slipped’. Materials are mindful of the context, using local brick and sustainably resourced timber. The use of highly reflective glass and the ‘hardness’ of steel and concrete is effectively calmed by the softer materials.
The building was completed on time and within budget and was highly successful for the client. Achieving acclaim, a unique building on a very special site, the Ferry Street project for Fourthspace illustrates architecture that is responsive to its context and succeeds in providing quality for the client and the new residents.
