Acorn House provides 33 affordable homes with a residents’ community room, play space and flexible workspace and a retail unit for a local business at ground level. The housing tenure is split with 60% of the affordable homes provided at Social Rent (as set by Camden Council), and 40% as Intermediate Rent Tenures (in line with GLA household income caps).
Replacing a 1960s office building which was no longer fit for purpose, the new building responds positively to the Bloomsbury Conservation Area, with a stepped massing along its elevations. To the east the building steps down, responding to the Georgian townhouses of Swinton Street, while the west elevation addressing Gray’s Inn Road steps up to to respond to its taller, civic and institutional neighbours on the arterial Grays Inn Road.
The design has been carefully considered to reduce energy in use, utilise renewable energy sources and reducing embodied carbon through thoughtful material choices. Similarly, a holistic approach to the landscaping design sees an increase in biodiversity on the site with communal spaces for tenants, children’s play area and external terraces.
A community room with kitchenette and external terrace at level 9 gives residents an opportunity to socialise and has wide views across London. Internally, spaces have been carefully designed to provide a balanced arrangement of apartment types that respond to the mix agreed with LB Camden and Newton Housing Trust.
Developed as part of a two-building proposal linked with nearby Belgrove House - a new-build laboratory and office building on Euston Road, due for completion later this year - the pair respond to Camden's policy on the creation of buildings for both working and living, helping to preserve the city centre's distinctive and diverse character.
