The Brentford Waterside Masterplan regenerates an area of London into a thriving community of some 850 new apartments. Plot A of the Masterplan, St. Lawrence Garden, provides amenity space for the whole community of the area and places sensitively designed new buildings alongside the rejuvenated 15^th century church.

Church and churchyard are re-imagined as a cloister garden, around which public and private amenities - outdoor lido pool, gym and leisure facilities, and a small apartment building – are set.

The challenging plot incorporated the graveyard of the church, with many historic graves and protected trees. The design solution draws on the history of the site, strategically linking the new elements with a sheltered cloister-garden walkway, locating the outdoor pool and new buildings to minimise disturbance to archaeology and root-protection zones.

On this tight urban site, 18 spacious two-bed apartments each 85-90sqm are located in a six-storey block over shared communal facilities. Each apartment has large balconies with views to river and cloister-garden, and access at ground level to the office working hub, coffee dock, and reception. Materials for the new buildings – fine, fluted metal cladding in soft dark colours with ribbed open stair core – were chosen to sit sensitively in relation to the Grade II Listed church, form street edges and blend with the cloister-garden ambience, created by retention of all mature trees.