Shepherdess Walk is a new residential development in central London, located near Old Street roundabout, London’s technology hub on the border of Shoreditch and the design district of Clerkenwell.

The project is a collaboration between British developer Solidspace and Swiss architects Jaccaud Zein Architects. The design incorporates Solidspace’s archetypal split-section arrangement, which allows the juxtaposition of rooms with different usages around double-height connected spaces, offering a sense of spatial generosity and continuity.

Situated at the corner of Shepherdess Walk and Wenlock Street, the project mediates between the different historical conditions and formal qualities of the site to propose an unapologetically contemporary project for a terrace of houses and an apartment building with a strong sense of place.

The split-level arrangement introduces a strong potential for flexibility for the apartments, allowing for possible subdivisions within each unit with multiple access to the stairwell. The complexity of the section is not immediately apparent from the exterior, with only hints to the presence of the double-height spaces given by the large-scale windows.

The buildings are clad in a brick that was chosen to reflect the patinated materiality of the surroundings to stitch the development into its context. All internal spaces have been developed using a palette of raw materials, plaster, timber, concrete, brass and steel, which are designed to patinate with use, giving each space a specific and unique character which will develop through time.