Tricorn House

Situated in a suburban built up area, the building has been disused for decades and has fallen into disrepair and victim to vandalism. The site is well served by local services, shops and public transport links.

The project constraints revolved around the shape of the building, comprising three wings (lending to the name Tricorn). This unique arrangement posed a challenge to ensure sufficient depth to each apartment and suitable window placements.

The existing precast modular frame system needed to be fully understood to ensure structural capability to extend vertically. An understanding of the building’s history and precedent within the street scene was also important in order to contextualise the design of the elevational forms and external materials.

By working closely with the Design Team, which included structural engineers, we were able to confirm the suitability of adapting the existing concrete frame for residential use and the possibility of adding an extra floor early in the design process. This ensured build viability and set the precedent for the development of the design.

Working within the existing constraints of the unique structure, each wing was compartmentalised to accommodate ten apartments on the ground, first, second and third floor around a central communal stairwell and lift.

The lightweight extension provided additional floor area for 3 penthouse apartments, complete with private roof gardens, taking advantage of key views across Stroud Valley and increasing sale potential.

Externally, a new secondary skin was proposed in the form of an offset cladding system with perforated metal cladding. This provided a contemporary external finish, complementing the lightweight roof extension and revitalising the existing pebble dash finish in a low impact manner that still provides glimpses through to the original facing.

Planning permission for this scheme was approved in February 2019.