Called a "modest masterpiece" by the jury at the RIBA Main Prize, the Goldsmith Street residential estate in Norwich is the fruit of a decade of work by local authorities and architects Mikhail Riches and Cathy Hawley. The total building area of the complex is 8056 m2. The project is executed with a high level of quality and detail: cream bricks and large black tiles remind of traditional materials for the city, and multi-colored doors, wickets made of white steel mesh, etc. give each home individuality.
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zooming 1/7 Housing estate on Goldsmith Street Photo © Tim Crocker
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zooming 2/7 Residential area on Goldsmith Street Photo © Tim Crocker
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zooming 3/7 Housing Estate on Goldsmith Street Photo © Tim Crocker
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zooming 4/7 Residential area on Goldsmith Street Photo © Tim Crocker
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zooming 5/7 Residential area on Goldsmith Street Photo © Tim Crocker
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zooming 6/7 Housing estate on Goldsmith Street Photo © Tim Crocker
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zooming 7/7 Residential area on Goldsmith Street Photo © Tim Crocker
The complex consists of seven lines of semi-detached houses ("terraces") - two-storey with three-storey at the edges. Each dwelling has its own front door, balcony, space for bicycles and strollers in the hallway. The street running along the rear facades of the semi-detached houses is safe and comfortable for children to play; a public green area is provided, parking is shifted to the boundaries of the site, more than a quarter of which is a public space.
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zooming 1/7 Housing estate on Goldsmith Street Photo © Tim Crocker
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zooming 2/7 Residential area on Goldsmith Street Photo © Tim Crocker
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zooming 3/7 Housing Estate on Goldsmith Street Photo © Tim Crocker
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zooming 4/7 Residential area on Goldsmith Street Photo © Tim Crocker
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zooming 5/7 Residential area on Goldsmith Street Photo © Tim Crocker
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zooming 6/7 Housing estate on Goldsmith Street Photo © Tim Crocker
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zooming 7/7 Residential area on Goldsmith Street Photo © Tim Crocker
But the most interesting thing about the project is its high energy efficiency of the PassivHaus standard, which is very difficult to achieve with such a dense construction. As a result, residents will pay 70% less for energy than the average home. To this end, all the houses are oriented to the south to catch sunlight (from its excess they will be protected by aluminum soncereses above the windows), moreover, the windows are smaller than Victorian ones, but the thoughtful “trims” hide the difference to create a traditional look. Roofs with an angle of 15 degrees do not block the sun on a row of houses in the back; the walls are 60 cm thick. Such details as the location of mailboxes next to the door (instead of the usual gap in the door through which cold air penetrates) are also thought out.
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zooming 1/8 Goldsmith Street Residential Area Photo © Matthew Pattenden
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zooming 2/8 Residential area on Goldsmith Street Photo © Tim Crocker
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zooming 3/8 Goldsmith Street Residential Area Photo © Tim Crocker
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zooming 4/8 Goldsmith Street Residential Area Photo © Matthew Pattenden
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zooming 5/8 Residential area on Goldsmith Street Photo © Tim Crocker
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zooming 6/8 Housing estate on Goldsmith Street Photo © Tim Crocker
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zooming 7/8 Residential area on Goldsmith Street Photo © Matthew Pattenden
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zooming 8/8 Housing estate on Goldsmith Street Photo © Tim Crocker
At the same time, the Goldsmith Street array received a completely new award - named after the author of the famous complex on Alexander Road in London, Neve Brown - as the best apartment building. The jury of both awards of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) noted that high-quality homes on Goldsmith Street are especially valuable and unique because they appeared when there is an acute shortage of sustainable projects are experiencing severe budget cuts.
The Stephen Lawrence Prize for a project with a budget of less than a million pounds went to the Cork House in Eton by architects Matthew Barnett Howland, Dido Milne and Oliver Wilton. This is Howland & Milne's own 44 m2 home, almost entirely made of cork including the load-bearing structure.
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zooming 1/12 Cork House Photo © Ricky Jones
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zooming 2/12 Cork House Photo © Magnus Dennis
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zooming 3/12 Cork House Photo © Ricky Jones
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zooming 4/12 Cork House Photo © Ricky Jones
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zooming 5/12 Cork House Photo © Ricky Jones
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zooming 6/12 Cork House Photo © Magnus Dennis
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zooming 7/12 Cork House Photo © David Grandorge
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zooming 8/12 Cork House Photo © David Grandorge
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zooming 9/12 Cork House Photo © Alex de Rijke
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zooming 10/12 Cork House Photo © Alex de Rijke
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zooming 11/12 Cork House Photo © Alex de Rijke
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zooming 12/12 Cork House Photo © Matthew Barnett Howland
The building blocks are made of wine cork waste, etc. CO2-neutral, designed for complete recycling at the end of the service project - testing the capabilities of this natural material for the construction of a variety of structures, from mass to temporary, "humanitarian" housing. Cork House was also a Sterling Prize finalist.
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zooming 1/4 Pocket House in London received an additional Stephen Lawrence Honorable Mention. Tikari Works Architects Photo © Edmund Sumner
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zooming 2/4 Pocket House in London received an additional Stephen Lawrence Honorable Mention. Tikari Works Architects Photo © Edmund Sumner
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zooming 3/4 Pocket House in London received an additional Stephen Lawrence Honorable Mention. Tikari Works Architects Photo © Edmund Sumner
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zooming 4/4 Pocket House in London received an additional Stephen Lawrence Honorable Mention. Tikari Works Architects Photo © Edmund Sumner
The best customer was the state-owned company Network Rail, owner and manager (but not operator) of the national rail network. The jury noted that its properties regularly receive RIBA awards, and this year there were as many as three: London Hackney Wick station (Landolt + Brown bureau), Ordsall cord bridge in Greater Manchester, which connects three stations (BDP firm) and another Stirling Prize finalist, renovation of London Bridge Station in the British capital of architects Grimshaw.
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zooming 1/4 Ordsall Cord Railway Bridge in Greater Manchester Photo © Paul Karalius
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zooming 2/4 Ordsall Cord Railway Bridge in Greater Manchester Photo © Paul Karalius
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zooming 3/4 Ordsall Cord Railway Bridge in Greater Manchester Photo © Nick Caville
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zooming 4/4 Ordsall Cord Railway Bridge in Greater Manchester Photo © Nick Caville
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zooming 1/6 Reconstruction of London Bridge Station Photo © Paul Raftery
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zooming 2/6 Reconstruction of London Bridge Station Photo © Paul Raftery
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zooming 3/6 Reconstruction of London Bridge Station Photo © Paul Raftery
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zooming 4/6 Reconstruction of London Bridge Station Photo © Paul Raftery
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zooming 5/6 Reconstruction of London Bridge Station Photo © Paul Raftery
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zooming 6/6 Reconstruction of London Bridge Station Photo © Network Rail
We talked about all the finalists here, and it is worth noting that out of six objects, far from the pressing problems of British society, a small opera house, a pavilion for a suburban sculpture park and a whiskey distillery remained far from the pressing problems of British society.
