Let’s twist again

Pierhead Lock, London Docklands

Barratt Homes appears to be paying homage to the De La Warr Pavilion with its modernist Pierhead Lock scheme, but there is a clear logic to the stairtowers in architect Goddard Manton Partnership's design. "It is a long, sinewy, winding building and we didn't want horizontal corridors wrapping round the backs so we put service cores at regular intervals," says Don Manton, director with the architect. "There was a need to make them very identifiable as entrance points, so that visitors can find them. They are literally beacons." Five stairtowers are located at 25 m intervals to serve the 100-unit scheme. For economy, the curved towers are fitted with standard vertical patent glazing bars using Parkwood Mellows aluminium framing and standard glazing. "Although the towers are facetted, you read the silhouette of the curve," says Manton. Nearby at Barrier Point, Barratt Homes and its architect are repeating the cost-effective formula for nearly-curving towers. "The costliest part is casting the cantilevered concrete stairs, but where you have a number of identical stair towers you can use the formwork again and again which helps," says Manton.

Twig Folly Wharf,Bow, London

Curved glass didn't initially feature in the stair tower of Furlong Homes' Twig Folly Wharf scheme in Bow, east London. "It was all curved brick in the planning application," says David Durant, technical director with Furlong Homes. The developer subsequently decided that an 8 m-high curved glass panel would give the scheme on the busy thoroughfare of the Roman Road that look-at-me quality. "We felt that the building needed a lift. It is in a prominent location and it looks that much better with glass," says Durant. The stairtower is the main circulation route for residents in the 23 apartments created within the locally listed three-storey boathouse under a concept design by GHM Architects, and provides a visual break between the existing building and 28 new-build apartments behind. It has a 1.2 m radius, with a quarter-circle screen of Pilkington 13.5 mm laminated glass in two sections. London-based specialist Compass Glass fitted the glazing into 25 mm by 25 mm aluminium framing. The developer believes its extra investment in the usually humble common parts adds value to the scheme, and is incorporating a similar stair tower into an upcoming scheme in Spitalfields. "I am not sure that it is that much more expensive to do, but then we don't always take the cheapest route," says Durant.