Daventry House, Westminster

2025 RIBA London Award

Mixed
Mæ for Westminster City Council
Contract value: Confidential
GIA: 6,106m²

Daventry House supports dignified independence in later life in safe, secure, convivial places and homes. The project brief majored on wellbeing and mental health, utilising Housing our Ageing Population Panel for Innovation (HAPPI) principles. This encourages adaptability, ‘care-ready’ design, daylight in the home and shared spaces, balconies, outdoor amenity and positive use of circulation space, shared facility ‘hubs’ and adequate storage.

The building provides 59 affordable social-rent homes supported by an on-site manager, designed to Lifetime Homes standards, including 10 wheelchair-accessible units. 

Its layout utilises the tapering brownfield site on the edge of the Lisson Green Estate. The 13-storey residential block meets a low-rise plinth, which tempers the environmental constraints of this busy road with three floors of naturally-lit, split-level affordable workspace. The two primary forms share a common materiality of Lignacite blocks in complementary colours.

A communal space for residents is situated above the street at second-floor level with a large kitchen for residents to use to cater for group or visitors, plus a lounge area. A cosy reading nook has been created that overlooks a west-facing external roof terrace. 

This roof garden is thoughtfully planted, with opportunities for green-fingered residents to get involved, and is well overlooked by the manager’s flat and a broad glazed thoroughfare. These excellent assets offer multiple opportunities for social interaction among residents and will no doubt be well used over time.

Energy use is close to the 2025 performance targets of the RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge recommendations for domestic projects, and embodied carbon figures suggest a material- and cost-efficient design process was adopted. Care has been taken to select blocks and plasterboard that have recycled content. 

The central success of the project lies in how the architects have succeeded in meeting the client’s commitment to delivering homes that adhere to HAPPI principles. This notable project enables residents to relocate from nearby Penn House bedsits to larger one-bedroom homes in their neighbourhood, retaining the many social links and bonds which are so fundamental to living happily in later life.

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RIBA Regional Awards 2025 sponsored by Autodesk, EH Smith, Equitone and VELUX