Mapleton Crescent, London Borough of Wandsworth

Project summary

Sector

Residential

Developer

Pocket Living

Contractor

Tide

Volumetric manufacturer

Vision Volumetric

Key partners

Pocket Living, Related, Greater London Authority, Homes England

Architect

Metropolitan Workshop

Location

London Borough of Wandsworth

Programme

18 months

Status

Completed in 2017

Homes

89 apartments

Site size

450m²

Storeys

27

Height

89m

Volumetric units

283

EPC

B

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Mapleton Crescent

In just 18 months, Tide constructed what became the tallest volumetric residential building in Europe at the time, delivering 89 apartments in an area of acute housing need.

Mapleton Crescent is a 27-storey residential tower in south London, containing a mix of apartment types, 60% of which are affordable. Its slender profile, wrapped in subtly changing textures of aqua-green glazed terracotta, immediately garnered national attention, including prestigious RIBA London and National Awards in 2019.

Project summary

Unlocking the triangle

The scheme was originally designed traditionally, but volumetric delivery was key to making the highly constrained 450m² site – bounded by a TfL Red route, a shopping centre and the River Wandle – viable. In all, the tower comprises 283 volumetric units, which branch off in two wings of apartments from an in-situ concrete core.

The tower covers the site’s whole triangular footprint. This was made possible by the innovative construction method, which involved assembling the building from above. The slimline three-sided core provided the base for a single crane to position all 283 fully fitted, loadbearing units in eight weeks, at a rate of eight units a day.

Early riser

6 weeks

construction of slipformed core

8 weeks

installation of fully fitted modules

18 months

complete construction programme

Rising to London’s housing challenge

Two-thirds of the homes are affordable and prioritise local buyers, while the remainder are open-market residential homes. The inherent flexibility of Vision Volumetric’s partially open-sided system enabled us to create varied layouts for both tenures, with high ceilings, large windows and wall openings of different sizes and positions.

The majority of homes are dual aspect and upper apartments also have cantilevered balconies. Shared amenities, including rooftop gardens and a riverside terrace, help to foster a sense of community.

This stylish new 27-storey residential tower is an exemplar of innovative modular housing, each flat built and fitted out off-site, then craned into place at the rate of one storey a day.

(Read the full article here)

Rowan Moore,

The Observer

Volumetric programme benefits

By building using the volumetric system, the development programme can be drastically reduced. Although volumetric units account for most of the total building area, they can be installed much more efficiently as per the diagram below:

The making of Mapleton Crescent

Mapleton Crescent has won

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