Report comment

I live near here, and pass it quite often. I don't have a problem with the size of it. The combination of the acuteness of the housing shortage in Tower Hamlets, the centrality and transport connections of the area, and the global sustainability benefits of living compactly in urban centres, means that arbitrarily limiting the sizes of buildings to that of their neighbours to be 'in keeping' doesn't make sense.

My concerns with this scheme are more around the massing, some of the elevation treatments, and the layouts. "Breaking down the mass" always seems to be a sign that one hasn't managed to work out an acceptable design that has the courage of its convictions, and needs to be disrupted and fudged in order to reduce the horror. While I don't mind the bronzey-brown north facade, which in a nice rough concrete would almost do as brutalist, some of the others are less successful. There are some pretty strange cladding tiles on the lower bits with a swooshy patterned texture, and the brick facade to the lowest bit seems rather awkwardly proportioned, like they were aiming for a bit of the lovely Hunter Pantsnith (or whatever they're called) Bear Lane - but missed. And aren't the people living behind the unshaded fixed glazing to the south facade going to get rather hot?

The family units in the S106 affordable housing have been unpopular with some of the residents because they don't have separate kitchens - for Bengali people with a curry-based food culture, constantly living among ones cooking smells isn't that appealing. Maybe the architects didn't have control of that though.

I agree with Sceptical that this isn't really the worst of TH development. I went to the bit round the Town Hall at Mulberry Place for the first time in the daylight a while ago, which revealed a whole district constructed entirely from grey Trespa.