The client for this project procured the site with a view to converting the existing building using the Permitted Development policy.

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Situated near Eastcote tube station in Ruislip, within the London Borough of Hillingdon, the existing building was a tired 4 storey 1960’s office block with side car parking. This type of building is relatively easy to convert in that the structure is generally concrete, with open spans with potential to add additional load.

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The 3-storey existing building sits on the corner of Field End Road and Kildare Close. It stretches along Kildare close to create a 100m long building of multiple uses. The length of the building did create a challenge of trying to create something interesting. T2S decided to split the building 3 parts – the front portion was a simple brick form; the central portion featured timber louvres which hid the external corridors; the rear portion was a white box.

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Our strategy was to internally convert the building into circa 40 residential units. A separate external application was sought to improve its appearance which was then followed by a vertical extension.

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The roof extension was accessed via the external corridor so we decided that each apartment should read as a separate form with external amenity space.

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Due to the length of the building, and the fact we were limited on the number of staircases we could provide, we decided to use external corridors which were naturally vented. This extended travel distances and created a safe route. These were hidden by the timber louvers.

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Works were completed in 2020 on-site delivering circa 40-50 residential units.