Limerston Street Housing and Apartments, Chelsea, London
The project, for 2 houses and 7 apartments, is located in a sensitive site adjacent
to the Sloane Stanley Conservation Area. The massing of the scheme negotiates
a shift in scale between existing houses on the west side of the Street and larger
commercial and apartment buildings of the Fulham Road.
The mass of the building is broken down into two principle forms, a pair of
houses follow the building line and eaves line of the adjacent houses while an
apartment building reinstates the historic line of the street and responds to the
cornice of its neighbour. The pair of houses are read as a singular villa, distinct
from the apartment building which references the larger London townhouse
or Pallazo through the use of larger openings and an increased scale of space
behind the facade.
The mass of the scheme is broken down into two distinct material elements. The bay to
the houses, and the front street façade of the apartment building, are finished in engineered
stone in a white Portland finish. The façade of the apartment building expresses the rhythm
of its frame structure through the use of flush 'pilasters' at the upper levels and deeper
columns to the ground, whereas the houses reflect their loadbearing nature with simple
stone bonding and expressed surrounds to the windows of the principle rooms. These
surrounds, pilasters and cornices are treated in a smoother finish to the rest of the facade.
The facade of the building set back from the bays, is less figured, and finished in a smooth
white facing brick with matching mortar.
The rear of the houses incorporate double height spaces with full height glazing which can
be retracted in the summer months. This creates a large 'outdoor room' to both houses to
maximise private amenity space.
