SHOREDITCH HIGH STREET, LONDON

In an area characterised by Victorian warehouse architecture, scars from the WWII blitz and the subsequent postwar development, the former petrol station site provides the opportunity to reinstate the historic streetscape of Shoreditch High Street.

Taking inspiration from those former warehouses, the proposals seek to reinterpret those design principles of well proportioned masonry façade with large glazed apertures hard up against the pavement.

A sense of verticality is achieved through the use of monolithic masonry piers that combine with slender horizontal detailing to set the formal proportions of the façade. Whilst the form and articulation of the façade is formal in its arrangement, the materiality and texture of the handmade linear bricks provides a handcrafted aesthetic, this contrast is exaggerated when set against the crisp detail of the glazing and metalwork.