The Valentine

The Valentine is situated just 30 meters from Gants Hill Station, enabling students to reach multiple London universities via the Central Line. Factory-made homes were transported to site and craned into place, enabling the station to remain operational during construction.  

We worked with Redbridge Council to design a building that responds to its surroundings, subdivided into 4 blocks of varied scales that respond to adjacent densities. The exterior appearance and massing of the building draws inspiration from the local context, specifically proximity to the Gants Hill and Valentines Mansion Conservation Area.  

The Valentine has an impressive presence on Perth Road, achieved with the simple repetition of volumetric elements and a material specification of exceptional quality. This means the building blends with its surrounds and is difficult to distinguish as both volumetric construction and student accommodation. An advantage given that volumetric construction brings considerable benefits of cost, quality and a reduced construction timeline.  

The specification includes handset red brickwork inspired by the architecture of two local churches. The red brick is complemented by white brick recesses around the windows, and pre-cast stone banding. Herringbone brick detailing above the full height windows of the commercial spaces is informed by the nearby Eastern Avenue Parade and reflected in the perforation of the gold coloured aluminium screens, which were selected to reference the bronze work of Gants Hill Station’s art-deco interior. 

Student rooms have been designed with bespoke furniture and fittings to increase the liveable area. Self-contained kitchens are included in the studio flats, whilst cluster dwellings are provided with a shared kitchen and living space, achieving excellent living standards for all residents whilst maximising the number of units across the building. 

The mixed-use ground floor includes the concierge and lobby for the student accommodation alongside a cafe open to the public. To support student health and wellbeing, and to encourage interaction, we designed 269sqm of flexible communal space, spanning the length of the building and fronting onto Perth Road. Shared spaces include a gym, cinema and games room, areas for independent study, and a kitchen and bar area. Our landscape team delivered a courtyard with character seating areas and a pergola, giving residents a range of spaces to gather outdoors. 

Factory made buildings can be easily reverse engineered at the end of their life. This enables them to be disassembled and recycled in a circular approach. The steel structure of the Valentine can be reused for another building or melted down and re-cast into new steel components that serve a different purpose.  

Volumetric construction significantly reduces waste to landfill. It also increases accuracy in construction to better ensure the target thermal performance of the building is met and often exceeded. This has enabled the Valentine to achieve a 35% improvement over Building Regulations.  

Our research has demonstrated that the CO2 emissions produced during construction of the Valentine are approximately 40% less than for an in-situ reinforced concrete building. The volumetric system is very robust and has a minimum 60-year design life, but there is no reason to think it could not last much longer with appropriate maintenance. To extend the life of the building, external cladding materials are traditional brick and stone. London has many fine examples of very old buildings clad in this manner, which continue to be serviceable after hundreds of years with appropriate maintenance. 

Our Planning team worked closely with Tide, Vision, and Redbridge Council to bring forward the redevelopment of the former Valentine Pub in Gants Hill.  They were instrumental in working with the Local Planning Authority at the pre-application stage to establish the principle of student accommodation and justify the loss of a derelict former pub.  

The building was designed to be sympathetic to local art deco-style whilst appearing contemporary to revitalise a central part of Gants Hill. The project was one of the first large-scale schemes in Redbridge to be built using volumetric construction due to our Planning team’s ability to advocate for this approach.  

The team coordinated the planning application for the project seeing it through to a positive decision in February 2020.   

Student rooms have been designed with bespoke furniture and fittings to increase the liveable area. Self-contained kitchens are included in the studio flats, whilst cluster dwellings are provided with a shared kitchen and living space, achieving excellent living standards for all residents whilst maximising the number of homes.

The mixed-use ground floor includes the concierge and lobby for the student accommodation alongside a cafe open to the public. To support student health and wellbeing, and to encourage interaction, we designed 269sqm of flexible communal space, spanning the length of the building and fronting onto Perth Road. Shared spaces include a gym, cinema and games room, areas for independent study and a kitchen and bar area. We also worked with our landscape team to deliver a courtyard with character seating areas and a pergola, giving residents a range of spaces to gather outdoors.