James Voller Way | Studio Woodroffe Papa

The Tarling Regeneration Project is a 211-unit development of mixed tenure and accompanying commercial program in Shadwell, East London by One Housing Group (formally Toynbee Housing Association), whose aspirations are to build for mixed local communities.

Over the years Shadwell has witnessed cycles of devastation and rebuilding. Studio Woodroffe Papa and Stock Woolstencroft worked together to transform these post-war housing estates into an active street based urban fabric with 4 distinct urban blocks.

The challenge in this project was to deliver the qualities of large, single-family homes in a tough inner-city environment. Studio Woodroffe Papa’s mixed-use residential building recasts the terraced row - a combination of apartments and a 21st Century reinterpretation of the archetypal British terrace house typology - in a form that best responds to the intensity of its urban surroundings. The new homes provide generous and secure outdoor amenity and a flexible ground floor that can accommodate other uses in the future.

The different types of spaces are located at different levels within each home so that the extended family and children can enjoy both privacy and family gatherings when necessary. The result is a new concept of family urban living in a tough inner-city environment - all for a standard social-housing construction budget.

By orienting the dining area and kitchen toward the inner courtyard, several advantages emerge for family life. Adults can supervise secure play areas while preparing meals or overseeing homework. This organisation creates successful private outdoor space in challenging urban context. Upper level balconies and terraces give large families room for diverse activities and an expanded sense of space. Also, by turning the kitchen and dining area inward toward a courtyard, the rear wall may form an edge to a parking structure with a communal garden above in a block organisation.

Visually, the building has the mass and appearance of a unified housing block while providing large, accessible, adaptable four to six-bedroom family houses and one to three-bedroom apartments. The building has proved to be a benchmark project for One Housing Group and the design innovation and problem-solving qualities of the project were recognised when it was shortlisted for the Michael Manser medal for housing - the most prestigious housing prize in the UK.