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<\/p>\nThe AJ spoke to Architecture 00 and Gibson Thornley, two practices hoping to prove the self-storage typology can have a better-designed future. The challenge put to them by developer Compound was this: how can self-storage facilities be better tailored to their users? And what could these look like if they were introduced on to our high streets?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, both practices are waiting for the go-ahead on separate \u2018urban storage\u2019 schemes \u2013 one in Peckham, south London, the other in New Barnet, north London \u2013 with similar concepts that combine storage with co-working, community spaces, and even light industrial uses.<\/p>\n
They claim that if the designs are approved and ultimately work as intended, such integrated inner-city schemes could permanently change the way we think about and use self-storage facilities. And yes, that does mean popping to a lock-up for a flat white and a Teams call.<\/p>\n
Why storage facilities are outdated<\/p>\n
Existing storage facilities are \u2018soulless, often devoid of any warmth or activity\u2019 even \u2018hostile\u2019,\u00a0says Architecture 00\u2019s Lynton Pepper. They are not places you really want to go.<\/p>\n
As Pepper tells the AJ: \u2018The sad reality is that a significant proportion of storage units are still used after a major life disruption, such as the death of a relative or breakdown of a\u00a0relationship. As such, they can be unexpectedly quite emotional\u00a0spaces.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yet how emotionally receptive is a closed-off shed on a retail or industrial park?<\/p>\n
Location is an issue. Gibson Thornley director Matt Thornley points out that, traditionally, storage sites sit on the outskirts of towns and cities and are often \u2018hidden [and] tucked away\u2019 in-between spaces. But, he says, these drawbacks have informed the design of a new sort of self-storage.<\/p>\n
The new approach<\/p>\n
Architecture 00\u2019s five-storey south London scheme, earmarked for an already cleared plot, has been designed to relate directly to its \u2018fragmented and eclectic\u2019 context on the main road between Peckham and Camberwell. It also reflects a more \u2018domestic [rather] than industrial feel\u2019, Pepper\u00a0says.<\/p>\n
On the ground floor, the development gives something back to the neighbourhood, offering passive surveillance to an unsupervised pedestrian path leading to nearby homes. Architecture 00\u2019s proposals provide an active frontage as it turns the corner and include planted decks to provide a \u2018human scale\u2019 element to the\u00a0building.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Architecture 00\u2019s proposal for a storage facility in Peckham, south London, includes planted decks to provide a \u2018human scale\u2019<\/p>\n
Above ground, Pepper explains, the upper floors\u2019 materiality matches that of its standout neighbour, a Peter Barber Architects housing scheme with a \u2018distinctive tall, stepped massing\u2019. In response, the fa\u00e7ade has a brick texture and \u2018syncopated rhythm\u2019 of a warm \u2013 and, importantly, non-industrial \u2013 colour palette. It should, when complete, invite you in.<\/p>\n
In north London, Gibson Thornley has submitted plans for a lower-rise building that, Thornley says, \u2018repairs the street frontage\u2019 in Great North Road. As at Peckham, the scheme wants to be domestic in scale and feel.<\/p>\n
The linear Gibson Thornley proposal does this by responding in height and rhythm to surrounding pre and postwar homes. Then there is the integrity and energy efficiency of its metallic and precast concrete scheme which, the practice says, was inspired by early High-Tech sheds designed by Richard Rogers, Norman Foster and Nicholas Grimshaw.<\/p>\n
\u2018We wanted our building to do the same,\u2019 says Thornley.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Why do we need these?<\/p>\n
Neither scheme would have got to the planning stage if they didn\u2019t address a current need. Both schemes are hybrids of how we live, work and want speedy access to stored possessions.<\/p>\n
Each was drawn up with the probability of evolving future uses for both buildings, meaning the plans needed to be flexible \u2013 and energy efficient \u2013 to adapt to an ever-changing\u00a0world.<\/p>\n
For example, Architecture 00\u2019s Pepper says that, by co-locating storage and shared workspaces onto the high street, you allow small and start-up businesses to have a public facing presence, including those set up during Covid that \u2018have now outgrown their houses\u2019.<\/p>\n
At the same time, today\u2019s housing market, providing smaller living spaces, means people also need inner-city storage at short notice. As a result, Architecture 00\u2019s Peckham scheme is designed to become a convenient \u2018attic\u2019 space, offering stability between moves. But one day, that space could also become an office.<\/p>\n
Thornley puts it this way: \u2018We are going through a period of great change and uncertainty within the built environment, and many of the old assumptions no longer hold. Creating clever hybrid buildings offers an exciting opportunity, embracing change and focusing on good design for all that supports the way we live in cities.\u2019<\/p>\n
The AJ understands that Gibson Thornley is looking at other London sites with Compound. Architecture 00, with the same developer, is also behind a similar scheme in\u00a0Guildford.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Watch this (storage) space.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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