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SPRINGHILL IS A DEVELOPMENT IN CAMBERWELL SE5 OF A PAIR OF NEW-BUILD HOUSES - SPRINGBANK AND PADDOCK HOUSE.

THIS BLOG DOCUMENTS THE BUILDING PROCESS FROM APRIL 2012 TO DECEMBER 2013

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Thursday 31 May 2012

The piling rig has two computers.
This one controls the rig - making sure the pile is vertical.
The other one logs the depth and other data from each pile and relays the information to head office.


Thunderbirds are Go!

One...

Two...

Three...

Four...

Five...

Wednesday 30 May 2012


The staircase at our current house, 38 Grove Park.
We are looking to reinterpret the traditional Victorian villa stair for the modern setting of the new houses.

The staircase will sit within a top-lit atrium, which will bring natural light into the heart of the house.

Monday 28 May 2012

The site at dusk.

"Dracula sticks" for setting out the site.

Kit for setting out the piles.

Friday 25 May 2012

The site temporarily open to the street.

Thursday 24 May 2012

A thought for the day...

Fletton bricks. - good only for hardcore...

The ugly Fletton brick wall goes.  The bricks will form the ramp for the piling rig to get onto the site.
The new wall on the street will be of clamp fired bricks, handmade in Sussex.

Wednesday 23 May 2012

Sunday 20 May 2012

A modern sprinkler head sits flush with the ceiling.
The flush cover plate is soldered to the body.  When the temperature at the fitting reaches 60 degrees C, the solder melts, the deflector drops down and the water flows - a simple, low-tech solution.

A sign seen in Peckham.
The houses will have sprinkler systems, which allows for flexible planning and increases safety.

Plastic mushrooms for the setting-out of the piles.

Compacted crushed concrete.

Tuesday 15 May 2012

An aerial view from the west.
Lord House,  one of our previous projects, is the green roof, towards the top left.

Crushed concrete for the piling mat.

A research visit to Beth Chatto's garden in Essex.  
She was a pioneer of gardening for climate change, publishing The Dry Garden in 1978.

Monday 14 May 2012

Dry clay in the excavation.  What colours!

Saturday 12 May 2012

The clean, modern lines of Dr Lettsom's house.

A view from over the road.
There are a few more images on the se5 architects website.

Friday 11 May 2012

Grove Park - 4 miles from the Houses of Parliament.

Thursday 10 May 2012

A "bee hotel".  The flat, green roofs of the houses will be bee-friendly.

The weather is looking good for the coming few days...

A view of the model.

Wednesday 9 May 2012

A visit to the window manufacturer's workshop.

Glazed porcelain tiles by Billy Lloyd.

Tuesday 8 May 2012

Pumped out and getting ready for the piling.

Thursday 3 May 2012

Camberwell is under the dark grey cloud to the bottom right of the map!
We have 2 water pumps ordered for this afternoon.

Wednesday 2 May 2012

The superstructure of the houses is to be CLT (cross laminated timber) panels, to be supplied and erected by Eurban.
These are large (up to 3m x 13m) sheets formed from softwood blocks, bonded together like plywood.
For complex building shapes it is ideal, avoiding cold-bridging and creating a robust, air-tight but breathing envelope.

Potter Billy Lloyd is making a collection of pendant light shades for the new houses.
These are maquettes of some initial thoughts.

Tuesday 1 May 2012

An engraving from an edition of  "Grove Hill, a descriptive poem" by Rev. Thomas Maurice, published 1799.
Grove Hill, now Grove Park, was previously called Springhill.