Four new townhouses on tight urban site.
As in the traditional terrace, the new houses are built tight to the pavement, creating a clearly defined street edge. The terrace block is broken up into identifiable residential ownerships, which step down-hill with the steep topography of Back Maling Street.
In this location, open views over the Ouseburn and Tyne Gorge are at a premium. The basic design strategy is to capitalise on this aspect. In order to do this, the terrace units run from an entrance level on Back Maling Street to an elevated aspect over (front) Maling Street and the river.
A small private entrance zone is created by deep recessing of brickwork along the pave-ment line. Red brick, metal and glass are employed to generate buildings which are au-thentically simple, robust and utilitarian in nature. The facades are composed by repetition of simple elements. In certain locations the outer skin of brick-work is perforated in order to permit light, whilst maintaining privacy, and also to provide discreet air intake and exhaust for the integrated heat recovery ventilation systems.
