Stylish Mint street housing block is just 12 meters from railway line

[Image Source: Pitman Tozer]

The winning design of Pitman Tozer offers apartments with one, two or three bedrooms and blends into the surroundings, while at the same time remaining stylish. It has a curve to it that follows the curve of the railway line and rather than try to mask the railway, the designers put the windows facing out onto the viaduct. This ensures that all of the apartments within the building get plenty of natural light and seem to be more engaged with the neighbourhood and of course offering great views.

[Image Source: Pitman Tozer]

The views are superb; however there is no getting away from the fact that the railway line can be noisy. The architects found a solution by way of acoustic glazing used on the windows in the living rooms of the apartments and this means a noise reduction of 41 dB, which has reduced the railway noise pollution to near silence.

The apartments also come with what has been dubbed a 'Winter Garden' space. This is a balcony that is enclosed and which has the dining/living room behind it and the kitchen deeper back, which offers not only visual separation but also acts as a noise buffer.

[Image Source: Pitman Tozer]

The apartments located at ground level in Mint Street have been designed with the bedrooms at the back of the building and face a courtyard. However there are also bedrooms at the front, which face the railway viaduct and the architects designed the front bedrooms with acoustic glazing and also an inner tertiary pane of glass, this manages to reduce the noise to a total of 47dB.

[Image Source: Pitman Tozer]

Upper floor apartments facing the railway are located behind the Winter Gardens and these have double glazed windows on the outer surface along with another glazed layer and a solid wall.

[Image Source: Pitman Tozer]

The Mint Street housing block makes use of mechanical ventilation to draw air from the back of the apartment building inside and distributes it over all of the apartments via vents. This system can also take out air that is stale and boosting is available when needed. Some of the sections of the back windows have ventilation screens fitted.

[Image Source: Pitman Tozer]

With the population boom it is thought that the population will reach 10 million in London over the next 15 years and developers and architects are looking towards re-developing more brownfield sites such as the one on Mint Street. This building shows that there are other ways to go other than up and what can be done in less than ideal locations.

[Image Source: Pitman Tozer]