stephen davy

peter smith

stephen davy architects

peter smith

*1

Front cover: Issigonis House

This page: Swallow Place

ii

iii

stephen davy
peter smith

Micawber Street

iv

stephen davy architects

peter smith
1

contents

2
02

04

06

14

introduction

approach

environment

22

28

36

layout

materials

awards

03

A fresh approach, with

no preconceived ideas,
signature or language.

Stephen Davy and Peter Smith

introduction
04

If theres one way of describing how

we at Stephen Davy Peter Smith
Architects operate, its probably the
above. Or at least it is when coupled
to a strong emphasis on placemaking
and rigour, taking our cues from every
potential schemes set of unique
contexts.
In short, we design not for designs
sake, but for people.
We first met each other studying
architecture at what was North
London Polytechnic. We were
both in the same unit, with Steve
having already completed an interior
design course and Pete having
already studied as an architectural
technician and worked at a structural
engineering practice. Because of the

tutors concerned including Florian

Beigel there was a real rigour and
an international flavour to our courses
then that has developed into a
practice with an international staff and
a distinctly European approach today.
East London Poly followed, with a
similar ethos behind diplomas under
tutors including David Porter and
Christine Hawley.
Then, however, it was time to put
some of those theories wed worked
hard to absorb and hone into practice.
Early explorations whilst working
for other firms included winning a
Country Life magazine competition to
rebuild the burnt-out Windsor Castle,
amongst other successes such as a
project model that made it into the

Royal Academy Summer exhibition,

and a RIBA competition to design a
Glasgow tower, for which we were
shortlisted.
From those early signs that we
were on the right track, contacts and
hard work brought about our first job
and planning consent 12 housing
units in Muswell Hill. That brought
us confidence both externally and
internally, along with more contacts
and the means with which to set up
formally. And from there came the
portfolio of projects and skills across
a number of sectors that form the
bedrock of the practice and the bulk
of this book.
We hope you enjoy our story.

05

approach
Fresh eyes on
every project.
06

Left:
Development
sketch
Above: Digby
Road

We at Stephen Davy Peter Smith

Architects pride ourselves on looking
anew at each potential scheme
eschewing formulaic, rigid, prescribed
approaches and instead looking to
the individual characteristics of the
sites concerned. Having said that,
however, we have found that there are
principles and solutions that we have
worked on in one project which we
can take on to another perhaps a
door fitting, an approach to communal

spaces, or a cladding solution, say.

All in order to bring about greater
efficiencies and, bottom line, to save
the client money.
A case in point is Digby Road. This
is a scheme of 97 new build, affordable
housing units on a difficult triangular
site over the Channel Tunnel Rail Link
in Hackney, east London, for Turnhold
Properties and Kingstreet Group. We
created a roof with an undulating form
and faade inspired by the geometry

07

Left: Digby Road

Above:
St. Ursulas School
Right: Wenlock Works

of the site and the roofscape of local

industrial buildings, with each home
boasting dual aspect and private and
shared amenities, including a rooftop
childrens playground. But beyond
tricky limitations over weight the
terracotta cladding could not have
been brick because it would have
been too heavy the key focus is
perhaps a green wall that rises to
the 14th floor and is thus the tallest
living wall in Europe. The scheme is

08

an example of how to get the most

from tricky site constraints and testing
budgets.
Another site where we had to
be sensitive to major constraints
was St Ursulas School. This was
a project in Greenwich where we
could flex our design muscles in the
education sector. The proposal was
for a new humanities block, drama
room and art classrooms, all built
within the schools existing courtyard.

We felt that, although the school

sits within a conservation area, a
contemporary approach was called
for. So we designed a counterpoint
to the existing school buildings, with
a primary structure made of steel
frame combined with structural timber
infill panels, curved to create external
walls of the art classrooms on the top
floor. We opted for glass and timber
cladding, and encouraged a screen of
foliage along the external boundary of

the site in order to soften the building

where it addresses the adjacent
private gardens.
Wenlock Works was a new build
live/work development for 97 units we
created on the site of a former print
works. We worked hard to create
places and spaces not just in the flats
themselves, but also in the corridors
which took you to each home. So
often in flatted development schemes
we see long, dead corridors, so we

ensured that we articulated spaces

outside each door here and where
we can in other projects. It helps
make the schemes less institutional,
more personalised, and is a common
theme - we look at the social,
communal spaces with equal weight
to the private accommodation we
design. The scheme faces Wenlock
Park to the front and Wenlock Basin,
(a canal) to the rear. Elsewhere,
colour was used to articulate the

09

Previous page:
Wenlock Works
Left: Morris
House
Below: Livity
School

main entrance and highlight other

communal elements including the
main staircase. A similar principle was
at play in our Morris House project,
where we designed what is effectively
an open street at the top of the
building. The scheme was a chance
for us to get involved in a formerly
industrial warehouse building,
creating B1 units, duplex units and
one row of single level units behind an
existing faade. The project became

10

something of a complex puzzle but

allowed us to create at the upper level
an external passageway or street with
a bridge link in timber and coloured
cladding, and corridors broken up
with natural light from above through
skylights.
Livity School is a scheme for
houses on a former school site
in Lambeth for a perimeter block
which takes on board some of the
lessons learned at Morris House. The

development comprises 15 terraced

houses and 28 duplex flats with
private entrances and rear gardens
at ground floor which create active
street frontages. Tenure is split 50%
private sale and 50% affordable,
but one of the main features is
that we strove to create a scheme
where all the homeowners had dual
aspect properties, with views over a
communal garden in the schemes
middle. Our approach here was

11

also one in which we persuaded the

client to go beyond the initial brief to
a more ambitious project which will
reap bigger financial rewards. At King
Edwards Road we also persuaded
our client to think again about what
they might be able to achieve,
creating an open aesthetic for the live/
work scheme after presenting ideas
using models and drawings. And at
Morrells Yard (see Materials),

12

we used our experience and initiative

to come up with the idea of cedarclad boxes within a private courtyard,
on a difficult, overlooked site. Again,
this exemplifies our approach of
squeezing as much value as possible
out of schemes, many of which are
on awkward sites. Less, after all,
is often more.

Above: King
Edwards Road

Right:
Morrells Yard

13

environment
Each and every project we design at
Stephen Davy Peter Smith Architects
pays homage to its environment
and seeks both to develop it and,
if appropriate, preserve some of its
key characteristics at the same time.

14

Left: Dalston Lane

Above: Kings Wharf

We are interested in placemaking

providing places for people to live in,
work at, or play within. Context, as
ever, is king.
Kings Wharf is an example of this
in action. This project was a bit of a
groundbreaker for us because at the
time we designed it, precious few
other architects were looking to create
deck-access schemes. We thought it
was appropriate here on its waterside
site in Hackney for Lemon Land. The

project would sit on a rectangular

former garage site between Kingsland
Road and Kingsland Basin. We
created a scheme arranged around a
central courtyard and linked by open
walkways of galvanised steel frame,
timber decks, and external staircases
protected by perforated aluminium
sheet cladding. We designed dual
aspect live/work units over two floors
to allow for multi-functional living and
working areas, the exposed concrete

15

and full-height glazed windows to the

front elevation, bringing something of
an industrial aesthetic in addition to
light-filled spaces.
Sedgwick Street is another
exercise in picking up on clues laid
down for us as designers by the
projects context. The scheme sits
in a former industrial area north of
Homerton Station in Hackney, so
we again responded with a design
which had something of this aesthetic
about it with engineering brick

16

and galvanized steel. A new-build

mixed use development of 55 units
of 100% affordable housing for
client Servite Houses, the project
is distinguished by the fact that all
dwellings have private balconies
and share landscaped communal
terraces at first and ninth floor levels.
An environmental thrust is furthered
by the incorporation of solar water
panels on the roof and a brown roof
as a wildlife habitat.
It has some of the same elements

Above: Kings
Wharf
Right: Sedgwick
Street

17

as Digby Road scheme, but there, in

a more residential area, the treatment
was softer, demonstrating again our
desire to respond to and respect local
conditions.
Sometimes, a well-judged,
contemporary contrast can set off a
sensitive historic environment to good
effect. Ecclesbourne School is one
such. Working for Durkan Estates, we
took an old school and converted it
into residential units, adding a new

18

infill block onto the site of the former

schools playground. We were able
to create 63 apartments and houses
within a conservation area of Islington,
the majority going into the Victorian
school, with single aspect units clad
in pre-oxidized copper, red brick
and white render going into the extra
block. We could then re-landscape
the space between, creating
defensible space for cycle racks,
refuse stores and front gardens using

Left: Sedgwick
Street
Above:
Ecclesbourne
School, Digby
Road (top right)

19

Above and left:

Upper Clapton Road
Previous page:
Ecclesborne Road

gabion walls. We deliberately chose

a modern idiom for the new buildings
to create a respectful contrast with its
older neighbours.
The Upper Clapton Road tram
shed is a part conversion, part new
build residential-led mixed use
scheme with planning for a site in
Hackney on which stood a shed for
horse-drawn trams. We came to the
project after a series of architects had
tried and failed, with a fresh approach

20

that aimed at maximizing the potential

of the site without destroying its
history and character. Our scheme
retains the tram shed, designing
commercial space on the ground floor
and building a four-storey residential
block on the roof, akin to our project
at Morris House. All of the residential
units are dual aspect around cores
which sit behind the existing sawtoothed gable ends. This allowed us
to create a new route running through

the scheme, with commercial units

on one side at the bottom of the
tramshed and a safe pedestrian route
through to the residential at the back
of the site. Ultimately, the scheme
uses an existing building, respects the
street pattern and gives both a public
route through and private amenity
space for residents above street level.

21

layout

One of the things that sets

Stephen Davy Peter Smith
Architects apart is that we really
practice what we preach in our
search for interior organisations
and well-planned initiatives.

22

Left: Parkside
School
Above: Comet
Square Nursery

Some of that is on our own doorstep,

which is another reason to get things
right. We designed Bright Buttons,
a nursery at our offices near the
City, and are running the facility for
local parents and their children as a
standalone business. We developed
the scheme for 35 children on our
offices ground floor and use it as a
model for clients who want to explore
converting areas in their schemes
for alternative. As with many of our

projects, we did a lot more than just

the architecture here, concentrating
on being proactive and helping to
make things work.
We also developed a scheme for
Comet Square Nursery in Hatfield.
We developed with models and
freehand sketch drawings because
we felt they were the best way of
communicating ideas to a relatively
inexperienced client who might be
intimidated by the usual architects

23

Right and bottom:

Carterhatch School
Below: Parkside
First School

Above and right:

Parkside First School
Left: Comet Square
Nursery

paraphernalia. The scheme uses a

great deal of colour, with classrooms
clustered around a visually exciting
and centrally located multifunctional
space, which forms the hub of the
nurserys activity.
Again in the education sector, and
making a strong use of colour, we
designed an extension to Parkside
First School in Borehamwood,
Hertfordshire. Here our focus was
on providing flexible, multi-functional

24

spaces which primarily accommodate

a new support base for pupils with
special educational needs. It also
serves as an outreach teaching
facility, an advisory support centre
and a facility for the local police. We
picked up on the existing buildings
characteristics, scale and rhythm but
provide a new identity for the building,
which can operate as part of the
school or as an independent, selfcontained unit, with its own entrance.

Carterhatch School as with

most education buildings was
another case of striving to create
an environment which balanced
effective, light and airy spaces with
good circulation and high degrees of
flexibility for the staff and pupils alike.
The first scheme we worked on at the
site in Enfield was to extend the main
building with three extra classrooms.
Working closely with the school and
education department to best tailor

the design to meet their need, the

classrooms continue the theme of the
main building with high ceilings, steel
beams and clerestory windows. These
provide a good level of daylight and
natural ventilation, whilst we went with
a cheerful colour scheme of white
render and one yellow external wall,
as well as purple, yellow and orange
internally. The three classrooms are
arranged in an L shape around
a generous corridor that can also

be used as a teaching space. We

followed this project with another at
the same site, this time to add new
admin and staff rooms, along with a
wind turbine to be used to power it
and provide an educational resource.
When it comes to exhibition design,
interior layouts are paramount. So our
project to design the Science Alive
science and technology exhibition
and education centre allowed us to
demonstrate our skills in providing

an exhibition space, interactive

space and high technology space
as attractive, efficient and interesting
attractions. Designed to a very tight
budget, the scheme was a conversion
of an existing sports centre in Harlow,
Essex, involving a flexible space
which included the pit a double
height space for shows or activity.
Although the vast majority of our
work is in the UK, we do also venture
further afield. In Luxembourg, for

25

Left:
Science Alive
Right: Maison
de lIngenieur

example, our design entry for the

Maison de lIngenieur competition
organized by the Fonds Belval
made a clear distinction between
the teaching areas and researchers
offices. This was set in the brief for
this new engineering faculty building
at the new University City site, just
south of Luxembourg. The former
we located in a concrete cube with
large openings to the eastern edge

26

of the site, while we envisaged the

research offices in an L-shaped brick
tower with linear window strips to the
opposite side. The layout allowed us
to propose a coffee shop, library and
multipurpose hall at the lower levels in
the space between cube and tower.
In essence, we tried to concentrate
on creating good, open and active
circulation spaces and alternative
break-out learning spaces springing

from them to suit how people

tend to learn today in less formal
environments. Although we didnt win
the project, we were the only British
team in an eight-strong shortlist.

27

materials
We delight in using innovative
and aesthetically pleasing
materials which are appropriate
to their site, but beyond that,
which are also more than
adequate for the job in hand.

28

Left: York Way

Above: Old
Montague Street

Old Montague Street is an affordable

housing mixed tenure scheme of
27 homes in Tower Hamlets for
ONE Housing, which we lifted from
the usual offering in this sector by
our decision to introduce coloured
elements within the glass balustrades,
balconies and terraces. Across two
distinct blocks on this former car park
site, we created open boxes of white
render above dark brick bases, along

with distinctive green render panels.

The result is a clean, crisp aesthetic,
along with a performance rated as
very good in the Eco Homes system.
On a different scale, another exercise
in choosing the right materials, this
time for a private residential client,
was our scheme at Burwash in East
Sussex. Here the task was to design
a house extension with a sunroom
and kitchen extension alongside

29

Above and left:

Burwash
Right:
Merrowdown

a refurbishment of the living room,

study and kitchen. We responded
with a simple form following the rest
of the building, dramatic roofslope
windows, and the interior improved
with bespoke oak furniture, display
shelving which incorporated windows
and folding oak panels, plus a woodburning stove. We also used a local
reclamation yard for roof tiles, wall tiles
and stone paving and commissioned

30

a local craftsman who created handmade terracotta tiles for the flooring.
Another private residential client
we worked with built a new home in
his garden, Merrowdown in Kings
Langley, Hertfordshire. We created
two long volumes with double height,
open plan spaces in a barn aesthetic,
clad in black zinc. Black was chosen
for this generously proportioned
contemporary home because of its

links with agricultural buildings in

the local landscape. This approach
was well received at local planning
meetings and the scheme was
commended at the Chilterns Building
Design Awards 2013.
Morrells Yard shows another
key choice of materials to enhance
a building. This was seven units
five flats and two houses in
Kennington on which we used cedar

31

shingles for the first time. The small

brownfield site was surrounded and
overlooked on all sides by residential
(many of whom opposed it) and
public buildings including a Grade II
listed Library and Lambeth County
Court. We designed a small-scale
development of two timber-clad
boxes within a private courtyard.
The shingles add detail and texture
to what are fairly simple facades,

32

while we chose Iroko for the cladding

and decking of an external stair and
access walkways. Both timbers will
also weather to a similar grey colour
over time.
A variation on this theme of timber
boxes was evident in another project
we designed, this time Micawber
Wharf in Hackney. The scheme sits
at the end of Wenlock Basin in fact
that basin used to extend beneath it,

Above and right:

Morrells Yard

33

Above: Randolph Street

Previous page and left:
Micawber Wharf

so it was effectively in the water. We

conceived it as a series of interlocking
structural ribbons which weave
together to create floor, wall, and
roof elements, with the timber boxes
slotting inside to provide residential
and B1 spaces. Since there were
many rights of light issues to get
around locally, with the Victoria Miro
gallery nearby we had to design a
building which responded to those

34

constraints. This resulted in a stepped

form like a series of books laid upon
each other with single level and
duplex live/work units aimed at local
artists and clad with timber screens.
Glass was the predominant material
featured in Randolph Street, a
refurbishment and extension of a fourstorey Georgian house in Camden for
a musician client. The project included
the creation of a light-filled basement

as main living space and large roof

terrace which was accessed from a
bespoke glass pavilion. The interior of
this difficult corner building includes
cantilevered walnut stairs with a
steel balustrade providing access to
the main living spaces, along with a
kitchen island made from concrete.
Swallow Place, meanwhile,
was a case where we thought zinc
was an appropriate and interesting

35

choice as cladding material but

which provided a challenge given the
schemes illustrious near neighbour.
The site for the scheme in
Limehouse sits next to St Annes
Church a Hawksmoor-designed,
Grade 1-listed church and alongside
a park and row of listed houses. We
created a series of six, three-storey
houses entered via a corridor from

36

the street and thereby not impinging

on the park. The building was
conceived as a zinc box raised on
an irregularly shaped plinth above
ground level in order to create
a sense of privacy. All in all, it
demonstrated our adventurousness,
ingenuity and inventiveness in one
of the most sensitive contexts
we have had to deal with.

Left: Randolph
Street
Above: Swallow
Place

37

Left: Swallow
Place
Right: York Way

Our project on York Way was

something of a pioneer in a materials
sense in that it was the first use of
this particular profiled cladding in
the country. We created a strong
street presence for this paper
storage warehouse, with a playfully
articulated wavy timber gate and
colourful horizontal cladding and
windows above suggesting boxes on
shelves, hinting at what is inside. We
designed the scheme with foresight,

38

too it was created with flexibility

in mind, with easy conversion into
a standalone office building should
values rise in the future as a result
of the nearby Kings Cross Central
project.
Ultimately, in materials as with all
the other facets of our work, we seek
to achieve several main goals in every
project we undertake. We strive to be
appropriate; we aim to be efficient,
and we set out to be cost-effective.

If we can do that, combining those

basic tenets with rigorous design
ideals and whilst pushing the brief
beyond all expectations, then
were happy.
And we trust that the client is too.

39

awards
List of current awards:
Branch Place (Lime Wharf)
Shortlisted: First Time Buyer Magazine Readers
Awards 2014
Merrowdown
Commended: Chilterns Buildings Design Awards 2013
Upper Clapton Road
Shortlisted: World Architecture Festival 2010
Digby Road
Shortlisted: World Architecture News Awards 2011
Winner: Estate Gazette, Green Building Award
Highly Commended: World Architecture Festival
Awards 2009
Shortlisted: RIBA Housing Design Awards 2009
Sedgwick Street
Shortlisted: First Time Buyers Awards 2010
Shortlisted: World Architecture Festival Awards 2009
Shortlisted: RIBA Awards 2009
Shortlisted: RIBA Housing Design Awards 2009
Commended: British Homes Awards 2009
Swainson (Issigonis House and Morris House)
Winner: Chicago Athenaeum, International Architecture
Award 2010 (Morris House)
Shortlisted: First Time Buyers Awards 2010
Shortlisted: What House Awards 2009 (Issigonis House)
Highly Commended: Ealing Civic Society 2009
(Morris House)
Micawber Street
Shortlisted: RIBA Housing Design Awards 2008
Shortlisted: RIBA Housing Design Awards 2005

40

Architect of the Year Awards 2006

Shortlisted: Public Housing Architect of the Year
Morrells Yard
Shortlisted: RIBA Awards 2006
Shortlisted: Grand Design Awards 2006
Shortlisted: Evening Standard Housing Awards 2006
Dalston Lane
Shortlisted: Hackney Design Awards 2006
Architect of the Year Awards 2005
Winner: Private Housing Architect of the Year
Parkside School and Carterhatch infant School
Shortlisted: Enfield Design Awards 2005
Swallow Place
Winner: AIA Architecture Award 2005
Shortlisted: RIBA Awards 2005
Shortlisted: RIBA Housing Design Awards 2004
Architect of the Year Awards 2004
Shortlisted: Best New Architectural Firm of the Year
Shortlisted: Private Housing Architect of the Year
Lever Street
Shortlisted: RIBA Housing Design Awards 2004
Kings Wharf
Winner: Hackney Design Awards 2004
Nominated: Civic Trust Award 2003
Scotts Road
Shortlisted: Evening Standard Housing Awards 2003

Merrowdown

41

42

Swallow Place

Lever Street

43

44

Micawber Street

Dalston Lane

45

46

Sedgwick Street

Swainson (Issigonis House and Morris House)

47

Text written by David Taylor, Freelance

Architectural Journalist
Design by Will Beaven, Positive2
Image credits:
top left to top right, to bottom left to bottom right
Front cover, Lyndon Douglas Photography
Front inside covers (blue), Hufton and Crow
p. 2, Hufton and Crow
Contents
p. 3, figs 1, 3 & 5, Lyndon Douglas Photography
p. 3, figs 2 & 4, Stephen Davy Peter Smith Architects
p. 3, fig 6, Hufton and Crow
Introduction
p. 4, Stephen Davy Peter Smith Architects
p. 5, Lyndon Douglas Photography
p. 6, Stephen Davy Peter Smith Architects
p. 7, Lyndon Douglas Photography
p. 8, figs 1 & 2, Lyndon Douglas Photography
p. 8, fig 3, Stephen Davy Peter Smith Architects
p. 9, figs 1 & 4, Stephen Davy Peter Smith Architects
p. 9, figs 2, 3 & 5, Hufton and Crow
p. 10, Hufton and Crow
p. 11, fig 1 & 3, Hufton and Crow
p. 11, fig 2, Lyndon Douglas Photography
p. 11, fig 4, Stephen Davy Peter Smith Architects
p. 11, fig 5, CGEye Limited
p. 12, Stephen Davy
p. 13, Lyndon Douglas Photography
Environment
p. 14, Lyndon Douglas Photography
p. 15, Hufton and Crow
p. 16, Hufton and Crow
p. 17, Lyndon Douglas Photography
p. 18, Lyndon Douglas Photography
p. 19, Lyndon Douglas Photography
p. 20, Lyndon Douglas Photography
p. 21, fig 1, Stephen Davy Peter Smith Architects
p. 21, figs 2 & 3, CGI CGEye Limited
Layout
p. 22, Stephen Davy Peter Smith Architects
p. 23, fig 1, Lyndon Douglas Photography
p. 23, fig 2, Stephen Davy Peter Smith Architects
p. 24, figs 1, 3 & 4, Stephen Davy Peter Smith Architects
p. 24, fig 2, Stephen Davy
p. 25, Stephen Davy
p. 26, figs 1 & 3, Lyndon Douglas Photography
p. 26, fig 2, Stephen Davy Peter Smith Architects
p. 27, figs 1 - 4, Stephen Davy Peter Smith Architects
p. 27, fig 5, CGI CGEye Limited
Materials
p. 28, Lyndon Douglas Photography
p. 29, Lyndon Douglas Photography
p. 30, Lyndon Douglas Photography
p. 31, Lyndon Douglas Photography
p. 32, Lyndon Douglas Photography
p. 33, Lyndon Douglas Photography

48

p. 34, Hufton and Crow

p. 35, fig 1, Rachel James
p. 35, fig 2, Helen Binet
p. 35, fig 3, Stephen Davy
p. 35, figs 4 & 5, Hufton and Crow
p. 36, Helen Binet
p. 37, Hufton and Crow
p. 38, Hufton and Crow
p. 39, Lyndon Douglas Photography
Awards
p. 41, Lyndon Douglas Photography
p. 42, Hufton and Crow
p. 43, Hufton and Crow
p. 44, Hufton and Crow
p. 45, Lyndon Douglas Photography
p. 46, Lyndon Douglas Photography
p. 47, Hufton and Crow
Back inside covers (blue), Hufton and Crow
Back cover Lyndon Douglas Photography

Stephen Davy Peter Smith Architects 2014. All rights

reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording otherwise, without prior permission of the
copyright owner.
With thanks to our clients and employees, past and
present, for their contributions to this body of work.

stephen davy architects

peter smith
Fanshaw House
Fanshaw Street
London N1 6HX
Tel 020 7739 2020
Fax 020 7739 2021
[email protected]
www.davysmitharchitects.co.uk

Lever Street

49

Rear cover: Issigonis House

This page: Kings Wharf

50

51

52