Rob Wilson writes in the April 2018 edition of the AJ, “Ten years in the making, Allford Hall Monaghan Morris’s slow-cooked mansion block at Weston Street for Solidspace is the latest of the developer’s signature split-level eat-live-work projects.”
“The qualities of its materials and finish and the level of care in the detailing are everywhere evident – from the sharp tracing of timber formwork that mark finely cast concrete walls to the walnut and oak joinery which lines its interiors.”
“Everywhere there are thoughtful haptic details, like round, oak-flapped ventilation grilles, while some elements reference AHMM’s own design history: a desk sitting above a stair echoes the one they designed for the flat of the journalist Jeremy Melvin in an early project. While these are large flats, their generousness is in the vertical spatial flow – not the lateral spread…”
“But, while this was never designed to be some kind of residential typology to help solve the housing crisis, AHMM has delivered a beautifully tailored building that contains and tests a wealth of ideas applicable for housing more generally. Its material and spatial delights give pointers on how to make a high-density block work very satisfyingly on a tight urban site.”
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