The site sits on the corner of Talbot Road and Botanical Avenue and is currently occupied by three properties: 64 Talbot Road, 66 Talbot Road, and Botanical House accessed via Botanical Avenue. Whilst 64 Talbot Road is an unlisted building it is of local historical value forming part of row of period villas along Talbot Road, this application seeks to retain this building as office use. The other two building are of low historical or architectural value and it is proposed that these are demolished and replaced with two new build residential schemes with a mixture of town houses and apartments and a central landscape courtyard for the residents to enjoy.
The proposal which fronts onto Talbot Road and sits adjacent to the Victorian Villa responds to the rhythm, proportions and level of detailing of the streetscape of which it sits in. We did not want to replicate the exact details found on the Victorian Villa but instead reinterpret them in a more contemporary detail, using modern crisp materials. Some of the key aspects that we have drawn upon include the chamfered corners, bay fronts to the ground floor town houses and saw tooth vertical brick detailing.
The building to the rear explores the concepts of the front block on a larger and bolder scale. Drawing on the Victorian detailing of bays and chamfers, we have looked at reinterpreting them on a building of a different size. There are changes to the form as we move up the building with rectangular bays that activate the courtyard and chamfered bays that shape the main body of the building toward the roofscape. Working closely with the Local Authority we entered in to weekly design workshops that were really collaborative and productive to create a building that promotes what Trafford want to see in their Borough and provide a statement building for our client.