A feasibility study for the redevelopment of two adjacent sites at 380–382 Finchley Road, proposing a residential-led mixed-use scheme of twelve apartments above flexible ground floor commercial uses.
The scheme is anchored by a single material decision: a warm terracotta mineral render wraps the building from podium to roofline in one continuous, tactile surface. Drawing on the rendered tradition of North London's Victorian and Edwardian streetscape, the proposal reinterprets that language as a bold and cohesive contemporary form — unapologetically present on a busy arterial road.
The ground floor is organised as a robust podium with three recessed bays providing sheltered access to commercial space, cycle storage, and a central glazed entrance. Above, the residential floors are articulated by generous full-width terraces, each screened with fine vertical steel balustrades that offer privacy without closing off the urban outlook.
The top floor steps back significantly — a deliberate response to the daylight and amenity of neighbouring properties, and the move that gives the building its distinctive stepped silhouette. The resulting upper terrace is among the most generous spaces in the scheme: a rare form of private outdoor space for apartment living in the city.
Interiors continue the material rigour of the exterior. Textured mineral finishes carry through from facade to internal wall, full-height sliding glazed screens dissolve the boundary between living space and terrace, and a restrained palette keeps the focus on light, volume, and outlook.
The project sets out to show that higher-density urban housing can be legible, material-led, and genuinely liveable — that a building on a busy North London road can hold its own character against the street while offering its residents something calm and considered.
