Arches create “animated silhouette” at red-brick apartment block in King’s Cross

Two-storey-tall arches frame entrances to Cadence Court, a mixed-use apartment block in King’s Cross, London, which has been completed by local studio Alison Brooks Architects. Positioned at the northern end of Lewis Cubitt Park, the prominent red-brick building combines 163 apartments alongside commercial and social spaces organised around an open-air courtyard. Signposted by its two towers, the building by Alison Brooks Architects forms part of the wider King’s Cross redevelopment and is complete with views overlooking Heatherwick Studios’ Coal Drops Yard to the south. According to studio founder Alison Brooks, the building’s red-brick exterior was chosen to pay homage to the nearby St Pancras Station, while its arched openings draw on the area’s gothic architecture and were conceived as a “civic welcoming gesture”. “The main concept of the project was to make a clear statement of welcome and arrival in King’s Cross, but from the north end of the master plan rather than the south end, which everybody is familiar with,” Brooks told Dezeen. “The generous two-story-high arches were the first instinct to make this very civic welcoming gesture and then there’s the idea of the arches creating a really animated silhouette,” she added. The building is formed of a five-sided block, with no designated front or back, which rises to form two towers reaching 12 and 16 storeys respectively. For its construction, the studio opted for a Design for Manufacture and Assembly approach, which saw 85 per cent of the building’s components prefabricated off-site. At the centre of its angular plan, an open-air courtyard, complete with a reflecting pool, has been wrapped by sheltered walkways that provide a shared circulation space between the building’s private and commercial programmes. “It’s a multifaceted building,” Brooks said. “Each facet of the pentagon has a particular identity or address to the space that it’s adjacent to.” “This idea of making a very connected space at the base of the building, even though it’s a courtyard, is visually trying to connect all the sides of the plot to the city around it.” “It’s a place of movement and light and also a kind of special quality because of the reflecting pool,” she added. The building’s first two floors have been dedicated to 633 square metres of commercial and social spaces, which include a “community living room” that opens onto the courtyard at ground level. A prefabricated lift system connects to the upper floors, where the 163 residential units benefit from both courtyard and street views. A combination of rectangular and arched windows draws daylight into the building’s white-walled interior, complemented by private balconies and communal roof terraces. Other projects developed as part of the King’s Cross regeneration include Google’s landscraper office building by architecture studios BIG and Heatherwick and an office block designed by Coffey Architects to recall the area’s industrial spaces. Project credits: Architect: Alison Brooks ArchitectsClient: King’s Cross Central Limited PartnershipLandscape: Todd Longstaffe-Gowan / Bradley-Hole Schoenaich LandscapeInterior design: Conran & PartnersStructure: Ramboll UKServices: Hoare LeaCost: Faithful + GouldLighting: Speirs + Major Photography by Paul Riddle Read more