No. One Centaur Street
London
dRMM Architects

dRMM infuses the English terrace house with Dutch concepts

© M. Mack / A. de Rijke

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An apartment building situated less than six feet from a railway viaduct hardly sounds appealing, but dRMM has managed to produce something that’s ultra chic. Their project, No. One Centaur Street in London, is based on a new housing typology for urban brownfield sites and, in addition to abutting a railway viaduct, is built on a former scrapheap.

No. One Centaur Street is a hybrid of the English vertical terrace house and Dutch-style horizontal apartments. Although each of its four flats have a different layout, they share a similar Raumplan interior that is organized as an open, double-height living space. This loft-like area is interpenetrated by adjacent enclosed bedrooms and stairs, which form a concrete buffer to the railway.

Internal construction consists of high exposed concrete that is clad externally with an insulated rain screen. Other than in-site concrete, all components are prefabricated and built to international specifications according to dRMM’s catalogue design methodology.

dRMM works almost entirely from international component and material catalogues, creating non-standard architecture carefully assembled from standard elements. The architects define their approach as an economy of means, with expressive and inventive use of materials: an architecture of “maximalism” that gives creativity, within parameters, as well as the benefits of quality and cost.

Formal name of Project:
No. One Centaur Street

Location:
London

Gross square footage:
6,652 sq. ft.

Total construction cost:
Shell and Core- $1.6 million; Fit-out of Apartments 3 & 4 - $546,000

Architect:
dRMM Architects
No. One Centaur Street,
London, SE1 7EG
ph. +44 20 7803 0777
fax. +44 20 7803 0666
www.drmm.co.uk