Kings Crescent
Our Projects
Kings Crescent
Award winning regeneration
Situated on the western edge of Hackney, between Clissold Park and the broad, leafy Victorian streets of Highbury, the ambitious regeneration of Kings Crescent by London architects Karakusevic Carson and Henley Halebrown, aims to restore community pride through renovation and creating new buildings where unpopular high-rise buildings were demolished in the late 1990s.
The £100m, five-year project is one of Hackney’s largest regeneration schemes, part of Hackney Council’s borough-wide programme to deliver nearly 3,000 new homes across 18 sites – with more than half for social rent and low-cost home ownership.
The aim of the exemplary council-led estate regeneration scheme was to combine high quality new housing with the meaningful transformation of existing buildings, harmonising the area within a redesigned public space and addressing the local disparity between ‘us’ and ‘them’.
In order to meet the high-quality design specification, Vobster Architectural were pleased to supply a range of cast stone products to this flagship project for large scale estate renewal. A selection of cast stone products were specified in the design on Kings Crescent, including the wet cast string course that creates a distinct banding between the floors of the residential blocks and the grooved self-supporting spandrel panels which were used to provide added detail to the upper floor balconies.
Each of the residential blocks, ranging in height from 5 to 12-storeys, were finished using cast stone heads in contrasting colours. In most instances, we designed these heads to be structural members that took the load of the masonry above, which meant that a lot of steel masonry support could therefore be omitted from the project. The saving in time and cost that this achieved for the project was significant – not to mention the improved aesthetics of the façade itself.
The use of high quality materials and thoughtful design on this project was influenced by the local authority's commitment to investing in lasting resources and an extensive community engagement programme, that ensured that the design of the scheme best reflected the needs and aspirations of residents and local people.
Kings Crescent has been widely praised by many in the industry as 'an example of future local-authority housing.'
Awards
Civic Trust Awards, (Regional Finalist) 2019, RIBA National Award, 2018, RIBA Regional Award, London, 2018, AJ Award, Housing Project of the Year (Above £10m), 2018, AJ Award, Editor's Choice, 2018, Hackney Design Awards, 2018, New London Awards, Mayor's Prize, 2018, London Planning Awards, Housing, (Shortlisted) 2018, London Planning Awards, Best New Place to Live, (Shortlisted) 2018, Building Awards, Housing Project of the Year, (Shortlisted) 2018, Brick Award Worldwide, (Shortlisted) 2018
