The Copper Lane Co-Housing

There are no private gardens or washing machines at Copper Lane Co-Housing

but there is a common room for games, music, and parties, as well as a laundry and open areas (Hites, 2016, p. 22). There are two front doors on each house, one of which is more public and the other more private (Hites, 2016, p. 23). The public hall or a separate entrance are also options; thus the neighbors can either know your movements or fail to, depending on the entrance of choice. Other communal facilities in the copper lane co-housing include a workshop and a courtyard. It involves six houses which are clustered. The windows and the balconies face to the court to give seclusion and privacy.

2_Brief for shared space: what shared spaces have been planned and how are they shared? What happens to them?

There are several communal facilities which include a communal garden, workshop, courtyard, and a hall. The courtyard is raised at the center with some communal space beneath (Hites, 2016, p. 22). The courtyard houses a shared hall, workshop, and laundry in addition to the shared gardens around the perimeter.

3_Threshold: how are thresholds between shared and private spaces designed?

Every house possesses two front doors with one being communal and the other private. Furthermore, the design gives each of the house a semi-sunk basement, which lowers the roofline. In case one of the house is north facing, it is given a private south-facing courtyard as a form of compensation (Hites, 2016, p. 28).

4_Material: what materials do you observe How are they used? What do they do?

All the houses are made of pearly bricks and heat-treated cladding bringing out an aesthetic nature, especially the external walls, which is already silvering into its setting. The timber is used for cladding besides framing the windows (Hites, 2016, p. 30). The timber clads the consistent palette of pinkish-cream brick. The main purpose of the larch timber of the external walls is to relate the architecture to their dense natural environment.

References

Hites, M. (2015). 1–6 Copper Lane N16 9NS / Henley Halebrown Rorrison Architects. Arch Daily, 19-44.