November 18 2010

Oliver Chapman Architects has completed the second phase of their Todlaw housing scheme, a development of 12 flats for social rent at Duns in the Scottish Borders.

Arranged into three blocks of four flats the minimalist design adopts a simple form and materials palette with gable ends are articulated by sets of external stairs. Each of which contains sheltered landings to foster neighbourly banter.

External walls comprise two interlocking shells, an outer façade of dark blue engineering brick and an inner larch clad element, each of which is separated by the stairwell.

The scheme is an overt attempt to reimagine the ‘four in a block’ housing typology, popular in the sixties it has since fallen out of favour, forcing the architects to look again at how private boundaries can be interlocked.

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