2 September 2022 · By Kate Youde

Emerging practice Borough Architects has been given the go-ahead to replace a former taxi office with what it calls Hackney’s ‘smallest office building’

Hackney Council approved the plans to demolish the existing single-storey shop in Brookfield Road, which has a gross internal area of 12m², and replace it with a 25m² two-storey headquarters for a local storage and removals company.

The existing building, which the Cambridge-based practice says is ‘structurally unsound’, adjoins a locally listed two-storey brick house on a triangular plot at the corner of the busy Cassland Road and Wick Road junction within the Victoria Park Conservation Area.

The new office will accommodate a reception desk, a cycle store for two bikes and a waste store on the ground floor, and a meeting space, a modest kitchen and a shower and toilet on the first floor.

A two-level green roof will be planted with a wildflower mix. An air source heat pump will heat and cool the office.

The brick façade is designed to match the adjoining house. Ze’ev Feigis, who founded Borough Architects in 2018, said: ‘The idea was to have a modern take on the traditional building but still respect it and [have it] speak the same language.’

Internal timber lining is similar to the plywood lining in the storage containers used by the removals company.

There were two objections to the scheme. However, the council’s planning officers concluded: ‘The proposed design, scale and position of the development will respect the character and appearance of the subject building and the surrounding street scene and would not have an unacceptable detrimental impact on the amenity of adjoining occupiers.’

Borough Architects designed the building in collaboration with architect Michael Hinich of Twelve Forty One. Work is expected to start on site next year.

Tags Hackney Hackney Council Office

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