At Crest we believe our products transform buildings into something remarkable. The project at Goldsmith Street, Norwich showcases how inspirational architecture and good quality building products can complement each other to produce a project that has been recognised as the UK’s Best New Building by the 2019 RIBA Stirling Prize.
The city of Norwich held an international RIBA Competition in 2008 to select architects and the right scheme for a derelict site near the city centre. This was won by architects Riches Hawley Mikhail. David Mikhail from Mikhail Riches says about the project “We’re known for unlocking the potential of any site with creativity and a strong focus towards a low-energy future, we believe we have created something very special for the new community of Goldsmith Street.
Norwich City Council has developed the site itself without a housing association or development partner. The 105 new units built represents a significant new investment by the City in council-owned energy efficient homes. It is currently the largest social housing scheme in the UK built to Passivehaus standards. The design seeks to provide sunny, light filled homes with very low fuel bills of approximately £150 per year.
This high density, social housing in the City Centre consists of around 40 houses and 65 flats and has been fantastic a project for Crest. Working closely with the architects to supply both brick and roofing materials, the architects chose two brick types: Belgravia Buff Multi and Grosvenor Grey Multi as they wanted to mix the bricks on site to create a unique bespoke blend – the Crest Goldsmith Blend. To complement the brick work, Crest supplied the H14 interlocking clay pantiles finished in a black gloss glaze specified by the architects as historically it is found locally. This beautiful high-quality clay roof tile was a perfect match for this special project which echos the scale and street pattern of the local Victorian housing and traditional materials of brick and tile, yet is detailed in a simple and contemporary way.
The complex roofing system created some technical challenges for Crest, with a number of bespoke special shaped tiles being developed for the project. The angles on the pitched roof required a specially engineered clay tile to form the beautiful roofscape with the roll of the tile pattern being read at both the mansard and ridge junctions, a challenge set by the architects for Crest to deliver. Crest’s design team created a bespoke roofing tile, carefully designed at exactly 70˚ angle and accurate to millimetre precision. This enabled the roofing contractors to construct the pitched roofs to the quality the architects aspired to.
At Crest, we believe that our exclusive high quality product range and our ability to go above and beyond has helped deliver exactly what our client wanted. The Goldsmith Street development is a superb and award winning example of this.
To find out more about the Crest range of products, you can visit our website at www.crest-bst.co.uk or call us on 01430 432 667.
