A House for Artists

This ground-breaking scheme for the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham saw the construction of a new apartment block to provide 12 homes available to artists for social rent. The architect’s vision was to create shared outdoor spaces and external access that would encourage interaction between residents, with exhibition, workshops and community space at street level.

Expedition supported architectural practice Apparata to develop this commission from arts charity Create London for a residential development designed and built for artists. The project has been shortlisted for the Stirling Prize 2023.

We provided structural and civil engineering on the project, assisting Apparata right from the competition phase to RIBA Stage 4 and enabling them to realise the pure architectural intent that they had committed to.

One of the key outcomes the practice was striving to achieve was the desire for an absolute minimum of finishes both internally and externally. This demanded a certain level of structural gymnastics to ensure that the concrete’s visual appearance was appropriate for exposure, with cracking controlled as far as possible, and in the placement and treatment of thermal breaks.

Supporting such a strong vision placed tight constraints on how we were able to approach the engineering challenges, but we worked to find solutions that met the needs of Apparata, creating a minimalist aesthetic that has been well-received by the architectural world.