Thornton Heath

The scheme seeks to reinstate a gap in the urban fabric and install a strong corner node that worked with the locally-Listed Public house and National Grade II Listed St Alban the Martyr, South Norwood Church. 

A mixed-use commercial unit and 7x residential apartment development is proposed to replace an unoccupied, one-storey commercial property to create a threshold and serve as a ‘Bookend’ for the beginning and end of Thornton Heath’s High Street. 

Existing windows, desire lines, datum levels, brick features & protruded elements from the elevations of the High Street were used to inform the design. This has been achieved using a strong but elegant combination of brick, wrapping lintels and openings that provide, both, a focal point looking to and from the site.  

All residential dwellings within this development following the ‘Fabric-first’ approach for reducing heating demand. The Association of Environment Conscious Building, (AECB), New-build Standard has been used as it reduces heat demand by about 50% compared with the current Building Regulations Part L standard. Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery (MVHR) systems ducted to outdoors through the facade is provided within each dwelling, ensuring a consistent filtered good air quality supply and moisture extraction, complete with heat recovery.  Small mono-block Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs) have been proposed for an all-electric heat source. This avoids the need for any on-site fossil fuel use, or any combustion emissions, and provides future-proofing ready for the Zero Carbon National Grid expected for 2035.  Space heating output is by radiators sized for the lower temperatures from the heat pumps.  

A hot water storage cylinder in each dwelling in heated by the ASHP to provide domestic hot water and all ASHPs are positioned on the roof to minimize any visible impact externally from street level and minimize acoustic intrusion. 

Team:

• Bright City Projects – Client
• ECD Architects – Architects
• Rolfe Judd – Planning Consultants
• Twinn Sustainability Innovation – Mechanical and Electrical Consultant
• GHD – Transport Consultants