South Thames College

Location

Wandsworth

Main contractor

United Living

Architects

Boon Brown

Products

Corium Brick Cladding

Overview

The South Thames College project was designed by award-winning architects, Boon Brown, and managed by main contractor United Living. Century Facades Ltd were appointed to carry out the design, supply and installation package of the Corium brick tile cladding system. Corium is a brick tile cladding system manufactured by Wienerberger and exclusively distributed by Taylor Maxwell.

South Thames College is a mixed-use development and comprises of residential apartments, commercial office spaces, basement carpark, a library and landscaping of the adjacent Old Burial Ground. The project is a £70m strategic town centre redevelopment for client and housing association London & Quadrant Housing Group (L&Q) and is part of the wider Wandsworth regeneration scheme (known as the Wandsworth Exchange).

L&Q purchased the land jointly from the college and Wandsworth Council, with the intention of providing around 200 homes, an improved public library and to help fund refurbished teaching facilities at South Thames College. One of the largest urban renewal projects in London in recent years, this landmark development site in Wandsworth has provided individuals from a wide scope of incomes with new homes in a central London location and has further enhanced Wandsworth town centre as an exciting place to live, work and study in.

“

We are delighted to be playing our part in driving forward one of the largest urban renewal projects in London

”

Jerome Geoghegan
Group Director of Development and Sales at L&Q

Concept

The development has delivered 201 one, two and three-bedroom homes including 21 shared ownership apartments, welcoming new residents with accommodation just a short distance away from central London. A quarter of the 200 new homes have been offered to eligible local residents to rent or buy properties at a discounted rate, in order to encourage the existing community to flourish.

The buildings range from between six and 26 storeys and the layout of the apartments have been engineered to utilise open plan living where possible and maximise efficiency against code compliance.

An integral part of the scheme was to make better public use of the Old Burial Ground in Garratt Lane, which is an important but vastly disused green open space. The project has involved the landscaping of this green amenity and provided it with attractive new features such as public art installations and additional outdoor seating. New pedestrian links have also been put in place, which provide a direct route from the outdoor space to the high street with the hope of breathing some new life into this invaluable town centre green space.

Taylor Maxwell supplied this development with our exclusive Corium brick cladding system manufactured by Wienerberger. Two different brick tile shades were selected, predominantly grey but also with red brick elements, along with Corium stainless steel rails for the brick tiles to be mechanically fixed in to.

Corium was selected primarily on the basis of its safety credentials; the brick tile cladding system is A1 fire rated with a full BBA accreditation. It was vital to the client, L&Q, that a non-combustible system with an A2 fire rating or higher was used.

The colours of the 13,000 Corium brick tiles that were supplied to this project had to be developed carefully to match closely with the colours that had been previously agreed with the local planners. Corium is available in a wide range of standard colours, textures and finishes whilst also offering design flexibility whereby we can create custom-mixed, bespoke blends to suit your individual project. It was this versatility and range of colour choice, along with its safety credentials that made Corium the perfect choice for the South Thames College project.