Standing tall in a relatively sparsely developed area of south-east London, the Bermondsey Heights scheme offers a rare combination of housing and industrial use in a cramped urban space – pulled together into an elegant and coherent whole by architects Maccreanor Lavington and dMFK.

Packed into a site that was previously occupied by a food distribution operation are 253 residential units – a mix of private and housing association properties (163 private, 58 socially rented homes and 32 “first homes” offered at a discount)  – and 2,538sq m of shed space neatly packed in unseen from the street at the south end of the development for client Barratt London.

These uses are unlikely bedfellows for tight urban plots, and the design team had to think carefully about how to blend the uses successfully – a significant leap from the more standard mixed-use model for residential in urban settings. “The emphasis was trying to create a proper co-location warehouse, not just a bit of workspace or a maker-type space,” says Maccreanor Lavington director Gavin Finnan.