Westfield Residential Building K, W12 London, UK
This £20m new building occupies a challenging site in the south-west corner of Westfield’s £1bn Phase 2 development at White City. It is positioned in a highly prominent location on one of the primary routes into the Westfield London Shopping Centre, which is currently undergoing expansion. The development – which comprises 74 affordable apartments – is carefully shaped in a saw-tooth composition to maximise private amenity space, natural daylight and views out from all apartments in multiple directions. The building has both a low-rise component addressing the pedestrianised street and a 14 storey high-rise tower component which acts as an anchor point where the large new public square and street meet.
To optimise the aspect of the apartments whilst minimising the impact of environmental conditions, the building incorporates efficiently-planned residential apartments which are designed to allow more light into the interior. These have been rotated off-centre by approximately 20° to give the flats views in a number of directions.
The building is designed to match the quality of the proposed residential neighbourhood opposite, with facades made from bespoke concave ceramic panels. The private amenity balconies are triangular in plan to maximise daylight into the living space, responding positively to privacy requirements of residents and shading to the bedroom areas.
The development is arranged as single-core building, with access to individual flats from passively-ventilated, protected communal walk-ways to the rear. This allows the façades – that address the more visually-interesting residential and public realm setting – to be protected from the surrounding road network, infrastructure and other obstructions.
The apartments are all designed to be tenure-blind, and to dimensions that exceed the London Housing Design Guide recommendations. They are a mix of 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom apartments – with duplexes situated at ground and first floor levels, each with their own private garden.
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