Driven by a desire to provide low energy, high quality homes in the East End of London, we set out to find a suitable site to transform and found City Mill Lock Island, originally a man-made island housing a working lock on the Bow Back Rivers in Stratford’s Olympic Park.
We based the design on the original home of the 19th Century chemist and amateur meteorologist Luke Howard which was originally situated on the island but demolished in 1934. Howard is known as the ‘namer of clouds’ for having developed the nomenclature system for cloud classification which is still used today.
Inspiration for the adjacent five storey block of flats, known as The Warehouse, is taken from the local vernacular of traditional warehouses to be found on the rivers and canals of the surrounding areas.
To help meet the high level of airtightness required for Passivhaus standards, we built the new buildings using Stora Enso PEFC certified cross laminated timber (CLT).
The result is an award-winning development designed providing seven generously proportioned, light and airy new homes with private outside space and large windows allowing views over the Olympic Park and surrounding waterways.
