Greenford Quays

Products used: Stewart Buff, Himley Dark Brown Rustic, Cheddar Brown

Project location: Ealing, London

Architects: HTA Design

Brickwork Contractor: Tide’s brick

Greenford Quay is a mixed-use development that brings 2,118 build-to-rent homes to Ealing as part of a masterplan that restores a once thriving, but long disused, brownfield site on the edge of the Grand Union Canal. The ambition was to establish a new community, renting high-quality, purpose-designed, and well managed homes, with exceptional amenities. The landscape at Greenford Quay helps to overcome the often-transient nature of build-to-rent developments by providing spaces that bring people together.

Block 4, named Lyon’s Dock, includes 251 serviced apartments. The building maximises the potential of a curve in the Grand Union Canal, with a landmark building that steps up from seven to nine storeys with excellent views to the waterfront. Podium gardens and a roof terrace provide a space for residents to gather, relax and grow their own plants. The look and feel of the building is informed by studies into brick warehouses and the Art Deco vernacular; the brown bricks reference industrial buildings, and the characteristic horizontal banding of the brickwork and pre-cast concrete elements reference Art Deco style.

Historically, the site for Block 4 was home to a dye factory, the place where Mauvine, the first purple dye, was invented. To reference this heritage, the team at HTA Design sought a brick with a mauve hue, initially hoping to use Cheddar Brown, a brown Ibstock brick with a slightly purple toned glaze. During the pandemic, Cheddar Brown was produced in batches that were too small to meet the demand of a building on the scale of Block 4, so the team worked closely with Ibstock to select Himley Dark Brown Rustic as an alternative.

The impact of the horizontal detailing of the facade was emphasised with areas of corduroy detailing, particularly around the entry ways. Himley Dark Brown Rustic was selected for the fact that it is a hard and smooth brick, with the compressive strength required for the project, and a smooth surface that guaranteed excellent protection against water ingress. This was important as it enabled the team to achieve a corduroy pattern by stepping the bricks in and out by approximately 20mm per course, without a risk to the quality of the brickwork or the pointing due to the impact of weather over time.

The whitest of clays are not capable of yielding a brick which achieves the compressive strength required, which led to the selection of Ibstock’s Stewart Buff, a cream brick, which like the Himley Dark Brown Rusticis wire cut, giving it a smooth surface which worked to complement the brown brick specification. As smooth, straight, and consistent bricks, both Himley Dark Brown Rustic and Stewart Buff are easy to lay and worked well with the precision nature of volumetric construction. Currently, there is a fashion on other projects for organic brickwork; Lyon’s Dock bucks this trend to achieve a facade design in harmony with the sleek Art Deco heritage of the site.

Working with Ibstock means receiving a data sheet that comes for each project, outlining what you can or can’t do; the frost resistance of each material, its compressive strength, laying capabilities and joining requirements. Ibstock understand the British Standards for laying and joining bricks and brought their knowledge to this project, working alongside HTA Design to achieve complex, non-traditional, detailing. Design partners can submit a design report, which if technically sound, is approved by Ibstock, ensuring you have a brick warranty on the product for the future.

The bricks selected were perfect for the project’s requirements. HTA Design worked with Tide’s brick contractor AON who are exceptional bricklayers and achieved a crisp finish befitting the sleek, brick specification.

As part of the evidence based post-occupancy evaluation, a recent study by Cambridge/Napier Universities shows that the volumetric system adopted at Greenford Quay is contributing to an embodied carbon reduction of more than 40%.