Chowdhury Walk

Project Info

Comprising eleven two-storey homes constructed from cross-laminated timber, Chowdhury Walk is an exemplar of recent high-quality social housing in London.   

The scheme is part of a new housing programme by Hackney Council to develop small, underused sites, rather than redeveloping existing estates. Nestled between two existing terraces, the row has been carefully designed to maximise use of the site and knit into its context.

Offering a reinterpretation of standard terraced housing, each home on Chowdhury Walk is slightly rotated and stepped, creating a varied streetscape. The gesture of twisting the houses breaks up repetition and brings a play of light, mass and sculptural form to the terrace.

The development addresses challenges of both operational and embodied carbon. The homes are built from CLT, which is exposed internally in places, and feature triple-glazed windows, along with solar panels on their monopitched roofs. Passive environmental strategies, including natural ventilation and solar heating, were implemented – with window sizes and location carefully designed to minimise energy demand and summer overheating.

Additional credits

Ground Improvements: KPT Design