Housing architecture design Essex UK

Seaside Townhouses, Harwich, Essex, 2021

Set looking onto Bathside Bay in Harwich, Essex, this scheme of 4 no. two-bedroom terraced houses, provides some much needed starter homes for young families in the area.

Housing architecture design Essex UK

Flood Resilient Housing

With the need to protect the dwellings from flood risk, the main living spaces are raised and the lower ground floor level is utilised as a parking garage.

The design, seeks to work with the scale and massing of the adjoining building while also drawing on the detailing and materiality of the neighbouring houses and historic context.

The curved gable-end draws seeks to soften the gable end of the proposal and its relationship with Bathside Park while also drawing from the precedent set on nearby historic housing.

Anthro Architecture

Developing a New Local Vernacular

The external finishes and materials have been chosen to enhance the appearance of the building and to be sympathetic to the material palette of the surrounding architecture.

For the railing to front and rear balconies, we have designed cast iron railing that has been detailed as a contemporary interpretation of the Victorian-era railing as seen on local landmark Harwich High Lighthouse.

Anthro Architecture

Respecting the Existing Context

The garage doors and doors to the bin store will be formed using perforated laser cut powder-coated aluminium on a concealed steel frame. The shape and patterning of these perforations has been carefully considered to work in harmony with cast-iron railing above.

In summary, the formal expression of this proposal respects the existing while also seeking to add a contemporary voice to the historic narrative of the site.