Luxury Co-housing in South East London

Plans for a new mews development are underway in South East London. The new houses will replace a series of dilapidated commercial buildings with a low-energy mixed-use scheme. Building on the success of the award-winning Forest Mews, the houses will be set around a shared central courtyard in a gentile form of co-housing.  Each house will contain a small private courtyard garden that will open onto a generous shared space that can be used for children’s play, parties, outdoor cinemas, barbecues, and other shared activities. The scheme will include live/work units to provide activity along the street front throughout the day. It will also involve minimal car parking, supplemented by car-club spaces.

The buildings have been carefully sculpted to maximise light between and over the houses into the courtyard, as well as creating south-facing roofs for solar panels. The front block is sculpted to create a contemporary form that also provides continuity in the street line. The two-storey roof of the front block provides accommodation at the 2nd and 3rd floors at the same time as reducing the visual massing. The whole scheme creates a playful and sculptural interpretation of the mews typology, combined with a form of shared living, much needed in the densely populated capital.