Barretts Grove

This new residential building is slotted into a Victorian terrace in Dalston. It takes the form of six storeys of flats above ground as well as a single storey basement flat with lightwells to the front and rear. The three main structural materials used are left exposed to striking effect; the masonry exterior cladding, the interior cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels and the reinforced concrete slabs in the basement. The architect’s scheme was to create a building with simple but creative materiality. For this reason the structural materials were selected to facilitate their being exposed. The basement box was reinforced concrete to form a solid foundation for the building and then CLT was selected to enable a fast construction programme for the superstructure. With the masonry used as cladding and load-bearing walls in the basement, insulation could be wrapped around the structure and hidden, leaving the structure exposed inside.