The Marlo was a complex project involving the amalgamation of seven historic brick buildings and an all-new residential extension to form a single mansion block
The renovation of an historic city block in Marylebone, London provides a useful lesson in how to celebrate the old while incorporating the new.
The Marlo comprises seven adjacent buildings that were combined and extended at the rear and at roof level to create an innovative high-spec mansion block with 31 apartments for the rental market.
An unsightly plant space behind the building was transformed into a new landscaped courtyard, delivering both biodiversity net gain and a community space for tenants.
The flats are designed to be as open plan as possible while keeping party walls. They are bathed in natural light from large new openings on to the rear garden, all fitted with elegant steel Schüco Janisol Arte 2.0 windows and doors.
The key design challenge for Barbara Weiss Architects was to integrate the new extensions alongside completely reconfigured apartment layouts and common interior spaces, while upgrading the thermal envelope to current standards.
Part of the scope was to provide welcoming common areas, with spaces for sitting opening on to the garden to encourage interaction between tenants.
The original building had only minimal views to the rear and the architect decided to form new, large glazed window and door openings to bring natural daylight into the heart of the building and provide views over the newly created rear gardens.
While the traditional Victorian front elevations were meticulously restored, at the rear the architect chose to differentiate between the original building and its modern extensions by using much larger steel framed windows and doors rather than replicating the small timber sashes common to the historic Harley Street Conservation Area.
'We wanted a versatile robust steel profile with excellent thermal properties,' says Karl Singporewala, director of Barbara Weiss Architects. 'We chose Schüco Jansen. From an aesthetic point of view, the steel profiles look beautiful, have good sightlines, are incredibly versatile when incorporating additional laser cut fins and work really well with the brickwork. It’s those small details that make the difference.'
The Schüco Jansen system provides a steel profile that could be used in various configurations, such as window, door, bi-fold, sliding and with automatic opening vents for smoke and fire protection. This enables a cohesive look while also providing low U-values through the use of an effective thermal break.
'Schüco were helpful and knowledgeable, particularly around specification data, CAD details and actuators,' adds Singporewala.
The steel profiles act as a visible common thread to the rear elevations, working harmoniously to bring together the many layers of the urban block’s history.
Find more on this case study at schueco.com/marylebone-renovation
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