Bronze
- Client: Workspace & Strawberry Star Developments
- Architect: Rolfe Judd Architecture
- Contacts: Chris Brown, Claire Clark
- LPA: London Borough of Wandsworth
Bronze is the last chapter on the transformation of Hardwick’s Quarter, an elegant residential-led in the southside of Wandsworth Town Centre.
The scheme provides 77 new homes in a new building of up to twenty storeys, together with 2,245m2 of flexible business space within a connected four storey building, and a café / restaurant space, located at the ground floor of the residential building.
The site has a very prominent location which acts as the interface between King George’s Park, Wandsworth Town Centre and Hardwicks Quarter. Wandsworth has a rich history of embracing its industrial past. Buildings that characterise its urban fabric have developed over time, many having a solidity in terms of the depth of modelling. The location of the brewery at the centre of the town is typical of this mix of solidity, depth and industrial architecture. This unique language has been the driver behind the architectural language for Bronze.
Conceived as a simple composition of three clean metal rectangles, which have been extruded to form ‘blocks’, each block has an elegant proportion, with the three elements being arranged together in sizes that are a complimentary and having an orientation to maximise the views of King George’s Park. This trio of elongated rectangles is complimented by the design of the Commercial building, which is conceived as a singular rectangle which has been laid on it’s side to emphasize the horizontal nature of the use of this building, finalising the composition of the whole proposal. Formed of bronze ‘wraps’ which appear solid, smooth and sleek, the ‘wraps’ enclose glazed facades that are composed of simple modular elements.
The landscape design strategy continues the pedestrian friendly environment established by the Wandsworth Business Village and Buckhold Road developments, and further enhances the character of this new urban quarter, providing new high-quality landscaped public realm, helping to foster a sense of place and improving permeability within the site and beyond, linking to King George’s Park and the town centre.
With each phase of new development regenerating this urban quarter, the quality of the schemes has increased, each scheme benefitting from the success of its predecessor.
