Graphite Square connects the formerly disjointed urban streetscape

Graphite Square is a new mixed use building in London designed by Ben Adams Architects in collaboration with KAP Studios. This building is currently on site and when complete will deliver 160 residential units and a new public open space, alongside 215,000 sqft of new floor space. Grade A offices, flexible workspace units designed specifically for local businesses, a Methodist Church, and small scale shops will create a unique urban destination. The history of Lambeth is one of factories and warehouses giving way to terraced houses and pleasure gardens, before its 21st century reinvention as the greenest borough in central London. This is a private development that makes many and varied improvements to the public realm through new pocket parks, public routes to connect disjointed local streets and layers of privacy for office workers and home owners. It replaces a local eyesore whose dilapidation has dismayed its neighbours for decades with a compelling collection of new buildings that look to the future with a respectful nod to the local past. Working with KAP Studios on conceptual design, our proposals have sought to maximise public amenity on this tight urban site with two new open spaces, trees, planters and play-space, all connecting to a wider urban context. The scheme is accessed via an 60 ft wide double-height cut through, creating a direct pedestrian connection between Worgan Street and Vauxhall Walk and helping to connect the formerly disjointed urban streetscape. The new spaces are both lively and inviting, activated by a vibrant layer of retail, co-working and small-scale makers workshops at ground level. Residential units maximise connections to the outside with generous winter gardens recessed for privacy. A four-storey office podium is topped with a fully landscaped terrace which offers a shared amenity for the residential blocks above, and one which creates a dialogue between the layers of public and private external space within the development. Design details reference the industrial heritage of the site, with buildings characterised by saw-tooth roof forms, characterful brickwork, layered masonry construction and deep reveals. Steel framed windows sit within large openings to create year round winter gardens for every apartment, and the pedestrianised hard landscaping of the ground plane connects four new entrances to the site with fully public access.