Edgley Design turns an industrial site into saw-toothed houses in London’s Islington

Edgley Design has created a series of six zinc-clad houses on an empty industrial site in London’s Islington.

The RIBA Award-winning homes – one of which is currently on the market via Fyfe McDade for £1.295m – were designed in close consultation with Islington Council. Their unusual layout is a nod to the site’s original row of Georgian housing, demolished in the 1970s.

‘There is an industrial quality to the aesthetic of the buildings, particularly with their raw commercial interiors,’ says practice principal Jake Edgley.

He adds: ‘This is in reference to the recent history of the area where the rear yards of buildings in this city block were light industrial – hat makers, record presses, silverworks – [businesses that have] now relocated.’

Living spaces are on the upper floors of the houses while a pair of bedrooms in the basement are brightened by a rear lightwell. Levels are linked by a slatted steel staircase.

Godson Street Edgley Design — Photography: Jack Hobhouse

Coloured zinc panels wrap around the buildings, which feature sculptural roofs that form a zig-zag profile.

‘We wanted to relate to the scale of the old butterfly roof buildings facing the rear of the building, and the saw-toothed roof picks up on this undulating roofline.’

In another nod to the building’s mixed-use heritage, the row of buildings contains five commercial units, which feature concrete exteriors that sit under the houses like pedestals.