Deptford Foundry
- Client: Anthology
- Contacts: Andrew Long, Michał Affanasowicz
Deptford Foundry transforms the previously redundant light industrial estate into a high-quality mixed-use development which makes a positive and lasting contribution to the ongoing regeneration of Deptford and New Cross.
The design of the contemporary homes, and studios for local artists, is inspired by the industrial history of the site and comprises of eight buildings ranging from 4 to 22 storeys. It provides 316 new homes within with 30,000sqft of creative employment space for a wide range of artists’, craft makers, and designers whose practices include ceramics, fine art, painting, leatherwork, sculpture and textiles.
The development is as much about public space and location as it is about buildings. The client set out to create a new vibrant community integrated and connected to the local community.
Key to the success of the scheme is opening up the previously ‘dead end’ site with the creation of a new public pedestrian and cycle route that connects Arklow Road to Folkstone Gardens. A series of linked landscaped courtyards re-connect the established street pattern. Two new public squares to the east of the site, together with 2 new ‘marker buildings’ identify this new connection with the adjacent streets. A sense of overall design cohesion is achieved through the coordinated use of hard and soft landscape materials, artworks and sculptures. These combine to create an attractive, user-friendly interconnected public realm that permeates the whole development.
In response to the local context and history of the site, the design inspiration for the scheme evolved from manufacturing industry which was based on the site for over a hundred years.
Conceptually the lower buildings are designed as a series of contemporary warehouse buildings in traditional materials reflecting the local context. The two visually different ‘marker’ buildings, that signify the public squares, were inspired by historic photographs of the stacks of metal mould boxes used in the manufacturing process of the foundry.
