Single Aspect Blog

Still from Mind the Gap at 37:47

We can argue about whether the Eagle flats are pure single aspect flats because the windows are on a slight curve. But £1m? Shouldn’t that buy dual aspect views and a kitchen with a view? If I had £1m I would not be spending it on these. I know it’s in London but so is the Barbican and Braithwaite House (£350,000), and those are proper flats.

BARBICAN SCISSOR FLAT

BARBICAN SCISSOR FLAT

http://www.barbicanliving.co.uk/plans/explanation-of-flat-types/type-98/

MOUNT ANVIL FLATS

£1,020,000

£1,065,000

Ok, it’s a got a small window by the sofa but still, essentially single aspect.

£1,070,000

The project website. http://www.eagleoldst.com/

From the brochure

In discussion with a friend it was pointed out to me that some of the flats have a view wider than the perpendicular and I have thought about this.

But the fact is that even if, at a stretch, and depending on the nature of the glass fitted and the number of layers installed, you can get a view approaching 90° there is only one plan with a 90° layout, and that’s the North facing one.

I remain allied to my view that these are essentially single aspect flats. The North facing one is shameful. Some early morning sun and westerly sun at midsummer it’s true coming through the balcony(?) window but otherwise? Poor quality housing.

I have rotated the floor plan above, taken from the brochure, to an approximate North heading. It is within a few degrees and I only avoided an exact North alignment to fit within the page boundary without shrinking the image.

More about London’s scissor flats in this article from the Architects Journal from 1962

Braithwaite House on the other hand, which stands a third of a mile away as the crow flies, on Bunhill Row, has 19 floors x 6 flats = 114 dual aspect flats.

More photos of Braithwaite House

Braithwaite House flat floor plan

Mount Anvil City Road from Google Earth

I find it difficult to understand on design grounds why Mount Anvil was favoured other than the Lifetime Homes standard to which Alex Ely refers in this article here from the Architects Journal.

Rant

I don’t personally think, however, that good housing design ought to be sacrificed at the altar of the disabled. Much as I respect the need for suitable accommodation I don’t think that need should trump all other housing design or we’ll all be living in houses and flats with wide doorways and ramps.

There must surely be a way to design split level housing with stair-lifts to accommodate those differently abled, and besides it’s absurd to think that everybody with a disability is also wheelchair bound. Disability comes in many forms and only a small proportion of it is difficulty in walking or getting around.