Cargo Fleet: 14 Whistler Street, London, N5

This ‘lifetime live-work’ home can be used flexibly to accommodate the changes in circumstance of occupants over a lifetime. It could be one larger dwelling, containing a home-office, or two smaller houses.

Integral to the design of the building was the architect’s interest in the redundant or disappearing structures of the industrial landscape of northeast England, particularly the steelworks where Chance’s family worked. They had been recording these structures along with a photographer and a glass artist who contributed to the project.

Cargo Fleet is clad in cor-ten steel and larch. Cor-ten is a weathering steel that gradually rusts a rich purple-brown colour. This rusting steel was chosen for its natural beauty, its association with the industrial landscape, and its ability to represent the passage of time.

The two volumes are linked by a ramp, which sweeps the full length of the plot. Materials within the house are quite ‘raw’, with concrete and oak floors, unpainted plaster walls and steel stairs.

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