Bell Phillips Architects choose Vandersanden bricks for colour, texture and contrast at Orwell House

For its architecturally striking Orwell House scheme in Bethnal Green, London, Bell Phillips Architects (BPA) has specified hand-formed, multi-coloured Antro bricks from Vandersanden, the brick maker renowned for its innovation, craftsmanship and sustainable manufacturing practices. Antro provides just the right balance of colour, texture and contrast for this affordable housing project, designed by BPA for London Borough of Tower Hamlets and forming part of the Berthold Lubetkin-designed Dorset Estate, originally constructed in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Comprising 20 flats in total, Orwell House is a new, wedge-shape, in-fill development, just off Colombia Road, to the North-West of the Borough. BPA’s imaginative design for this six-storey building features balconies and a roof terrace that look out across Ravenscroft Park with the steel-framed volume of Orwell House contained by Vandersanden’s multi-coloured greyish brick envelope. On the two shorter sides, this brick envelope is fronted by balconies clad in pink, glass-reinforced concrete (GRC) panels. This bold chequerboard patterning echoes the tones and patterns used by Lubetkin to animate facades on buildings across the existing estate.

Completed in July 2020, Orwell House is a Finalist in the Housing Awards 2021. For more on Antro and the range of high-quality bricks from Vandersanden, visit www.vandersanden.com.