95 Peckham Road

By Peter Barber Architects

Client Kuropatwa Ltd

Awards RIBA London Award 2021

This project was shortlisted for the 2021 Neave Brown Award for Housing

95 Peckham Road is a re-interpretation of the mansion block typology, livening up an otherwise relatively nondescript road in Peckham.

The development creates 33 low-cost apartments, with a courtyard behind. There is direct access from the street and courtyard to the lower apartments. There are two additional access cores for the flats at higher level, each core serving three apartments at each level.

It is not possible to pass the new block without smiling. The building is the work of an architect who knows how to make housing design a success, but with a sense of humour thrown into the mix. The design is dramatic, with a façade made of different planes, windows not necessarily following any order, and long cantilevered balconies to the rear clad on their sides and undersides with brick. Even if these features are perhaps exaggerated, it is hard not to be inspired by their overall theatricality.

Paved with cobbles and interspersed with soft landscaping in the form of trees in large containers, the courtyard is a coup. It somehow contrives to be peaceful, a place you want to spend time in and be with friends and neighbours, and will no doubt be developed further as residents customize their front entrances with potted plants.

The north wing, is partly made of residential units, and it includes a sort of folly pretending to be a residential unit, yet another playful design feature that makes one first intrigued, then happy.

The interiors are well designed; they feel like home. Even the single-aspect units are successful because their balconies create the illusion of being double-aspect.

With interest in every corner of the plot, the new block is vibrant and alive, making a very positive contribution to the urban realm.

Internal Area 2,846 m²

Contractor Kuropatwa Ltd

Structural Engineers Hall Davis

Environmental / M&E Engineers Mendick Waring

Quantity Surveyor / Cost Consultant Kuropatwa Ltd