HTA Design & Tide complete College Road, Enclave
College Road, Enclave, takes co-living to new heights for a growing community at the heart of East Croydon. The scheme comprises two adjoining buildings: a 50-storey build to rent development with 817 apartments, called Enclave: Croydon, and a 35-storey building providing 120 affordable homes.
Tide worked alongside its sister company and volumetric manufacturer, Vision to deliver the scheme, comprising a 163-metre-high development which is also Europe’s tallest residential tower to be completed using volumetric construction methods. Until now this record had been held by another of Tide and HTA’s developments, neighbouring Ten Degrees, which includes a 135-metre tower and was completed in 2020.
HTA, working in collaboration with Tide’s in-house design team, took inspiration for the building from the hopeful mid-century vision upon which much of Croydon was built. The South London town saw an influx of development in the 1950s and 1960s that included Richard Seifert’s renowned brutalist NLA building, which strongly influenced the bold articulation of College Road’s ceramic façade. Mid-century modernist-style repetition creates a striking new geometric landmark, with the building’s appearance evolving subtly with height thanks to a varying configuration of ceramic tiles at the base, middle, and top of the tower.
Alongside its neighbour Ten Degrees, College Road forms a gateway to Croydon’s emerging cultural quarter. At the building’s base is a grand 7m high colonnade, featuring a permanent installation by London artist Adam Nathaniel Furman. The 19 columns are wrapped in three-dimensional glazed porcelain tiles, adding a new, beautifully crafted streetscape to the town centre, and linking to a wider network of landscaped public routes between East Croydon Station and the cultural quarter.
College Road was the first co-living asset class to be approved by the GLA under the London Plan, and its configuration is the result of extensive research that saw HTA and Tide draw inspiration from successful rental communities in countries such as the Netherlands and the USA. The taller tower, now open and operating as Enclave: Croydon by Outpost Management, has been designed to foster convenient, effortless living through generous shared amenity spaces including a podcast studio, a spa complete with steam room and sauna, a high-end gym, show kitchens, co-working and conference rooms, all topped by a Sky Garden across the 50th floor, featuring dedicated entertainment and wellbeing spaces.
The studio and one bed apartments provide beautifully designed private space, whilst allowing residents to take full advantage of the communal amenities throughout the building, which are intended as a natural extension of the individual homes. Enclave: Croydon’s interiors have been designed by London studio Tigg + Coll in collaboration with HTA and Outpost Interiors.
Simon Bayliss, Managing Partner at HTA Design, said:
“College Road is the product of extensive research into successful models for high density shared living and was the first project to be approved under the GLA’s co-living asset class policy. Every aspect of the development was designed to offer residents the most liveable private space, while also having the free enjoyment of truly fantastic communal facilities.
“The building connects East Croydon to the new cultural quarter through a colonnade enlivened by crafted public art, an integral part of the building’s striking architecture. The design embraces the optimism of Croydon’s mid-century heritage including Richard Seifert’s iconic NLA building, whilst complimenting the neighbouring Ten Degrees, also designed by HTA with Tide Construction and Vision, whose volumetric system enabled faster, more sustainable and higher quality construction.”
John Fleming, Chair of Tide and Vision, said:
“It's fantastic to see this landmark development come to completion after only 28 months, two months ahead of schedule. College Road demonstrates the many benefits that come with building volumetric and its capacity to transform constrained sites into valuable real estate, most importantly, it has provided nearly 1,000 homes and a revitalised public realm for Londoners delivered in an efficient and sustainable way.”
As both developer and contractor for College Road, Tide worked alongside its sister company and volumetric manufacturer, Vision, using an approach that cuts traditional construction time by up to 50%. The efficiency of Vision’s offsite technology resulted in 73% of the entire development’s floor plate being installed in 32% of the programme, helping to achieve the 28-month schedule to delivery. This technique, with its efficient construction logistics, enabled the delivery of 937 homes on the constrained 2000m2 site on College Road.
Troy Tomasik, Outpost Management founder and CEO, said:
"We're immensely proud to have completed Enclave: Croydon and to have welcomed our first residents to their market-leading new homes. Designed to meet the evolving needs of today’s renters and deliver effortless living, our development sets a new standard for the UK rental market, offering unparalleled convenience-led, tech-enabled studio living on an all-inclusive basis. Nowhere else in the UK can you find the range of features available here, combined with beautifully-designed apartments, in a supremely connected location.”
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