Located in the heart of Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, the project is a mixed used development consisting of nine individual 3 and 4 storey contemporary houses arranged around a new courtyard, together with four Live/Work Lofts and ground floor commercial space fronting the site.

Alben Works reanimated a once neglected parcel of land. The site was derelict, previously used as a badge factory housed in two single storey 60’s sheds to the rear of the site with car parking and disused sub-station at the front.

The development was designed to respect the urban context of the site in height and scale, repairing the historic fabric on the street through reinforcing the building line defined by the listed buildings either side and positively contributing to the social and commercial life of the quarter, allowing the development to become an active and lively part of the wider community.

Materiality, spacial simplicity and honestly of these spaces was integral to differentiate the development from typical residential schemes. A reinterpretation of the Georgian and Victorian terraces which filled the quarter before the industrialisation, we have inverted the traditional residential typology by placing the living spaces on the upper floors to enhance views and daylight, and also allowing open plan living areas to be linked with double height spaces enabling natural light to filter through the spaces. With strong connection to the outdoors, terraces are located on the second and third floors, accessed from the open plan double height living spaces, providing views over the city skyline.

Client: Liv Projekt

Photography: Tom Bird