The Piper Estate is a collection of buildings built in the mid 20th century for the North Thames Gas Board, which combined to provide office and laboratory accommodation with an expansive purpose-built complex to the north of the River Thames in London. The complex has gained iconic status over recent decades, as the complex has incrementally been adapted to residential use, fulfilling an intense demand for high quality housing within the city.

Robin Lee Architecture was appointed by Baylight Properties to oversee the adaption to residential use of a two-storey river-facing building within the Estate.

The two-storey existing building has a frontage of 80m and a depth of 12.5m. Ceiling heights of each floor of 4.5m (designed to accommodate Gas Board equipment) were deemed to be suitable for adaption to residential with the opportunity for double volume living spaces and generous mezzanines for additional accommodation. We developed the building in two phases. In the first phase 13 single aspect apartments with mezzanines were designed and delivered while in the second phase there were 9 dual aspect apartments. Across the two phases a mix of single and two bedroom units were delivered to ensure an appropriate mix in response to market demand.

The development consists 15,000Ft2 of residential space across 22no. bespoke apartment units ranging from two-bedroom unit to studios. Careful stripping back of existing partitions and interior finishes exposed the existing utilitarian shell and revealed the original character of the 1950’s built warehouse building.Precast and insitu concrete structural elements were exposed revealing the powerful tectonic logic of the existing building. New structural elements were formed in steel and structural softwood. Bespoke joinery work elements effect loose subdivisions of space clearly delineating new installations from the original structural shell. The objective was to create a high quality adaption of the building to residential use but to retain the utilitarian atmosphere of the host building. A limited palette of materials was carefully selected for new elements, unified by durability and robustness. Natural oak joinery work, terrazzo and marble for wet areas, laminated timber structural elements and solid fumed Oak and oiled Oak flooring were selected to introduce an unadorned and simple quality to the interiors in keeping with the honest expression of the existing warehouse.

Open plan arrangements allow the spaces to be experienced as singular complete environments. Concealed luminaries uniformly uplight the ceiling structure throughout the apartments giving further unity to the interior environments.