New London Vernacular
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
New London Vernacular is the name given to an architectural style of housing developments, observed in London, England, from about 2010.[1] The style has a number of characteristics, notably flat elevations faced in brick cladding, portrait-shaped recessed windows, and the maximisation of homes having front-doors opening onto the street - all features found in London's extensive Georgian and Victorian terraced housing.[2][3][4]
Although New London Vernacular has diverse antecedents, its development hinges primarily on a 2009 draft London Housing Design Guide published by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.[2][1][3] The guide makes an explicit call for the development of a New London Vernacular, albeit framed in terms of design principles and rules, rather than mandating a particular architectural style.[5] Convergence on a singular style meriting its own appellation arises in part out of a perception that there exist few housing development solutions for high density housing that are appropriate to a broad range of households, and in part out of the exigencies of design, construction and sales risk minimisation after the 2008 Great Recession.[2]
The style was identified and characterised in a 2012 report by David Birkbeck and Julian Hart, for Urban Design London,[1] in response to their observation of what appeared to be a consensus in detail and material, and the universal adoption of a street-based form and style, in entries for the 2012 Housing Design Awards. Features identified in the report include:[2]
- maximisation of ground-floor homes having their own front door to the street
- ground floors taller than upper floors, often arranged to provide 2-storey maisonettes, and acting as podiums for upper floors
- elevations clad in brick, and having parapets; these sometimes acting as balustrades behind which are set top-floor flats
- top-floor flats configured as penthouses, or as wheelchair accessible flats, having private outdoor space behind balustrades
- use of short cores into the building, or galleries along upper floors, minimising the number of homes sharing an entrance path
- semi-private outdoor space visible from the public realm
- mix of on-street and underground parking
- portrait windows with regular grid patterns
- windows recessed in brick reveals
- balconies, often recessed with brick reveals
The style is summarised as having three markers: "lots of brick, deep-set portrait windows and flat facades".[1]
New London Vernacular has been described as a "fundamentally democratic" style,[3] particularly in the way in which it enables the mixing of owner-occupied and rented homes, and homes of a multiplicity of types and sizes, without there being any visual features distinguishing these.[1][3] The style has been adopted by developers serving disparate target markets and having different business models, from social housing to investor-led for-profit developments.[2]
