People/Products

Bell Phillips Architects’ Greenwich Housing in South London provides 22 single-story homes for elderly and disabled people, and it is a hit with residents. They talk enthusiastically about the qualities of light and space, as well as things others might take for granted, such as their ability to get into a shower easily. But the public housing project’s greater significance comes from its wider context. While London is in the grip of a housing crisis, with soaring prices, rising demand, and supply constrained by development rules that limit outward and upward expansion, Greenwich Housing shows that architectural ingenuity can uncover latent opportunity for densification, at a reasonable cost.