Collette Court

CLIENT: Cadogan Estate
VALUE: £5.25m
DATE: February 2020
AWARDS: The project was certified as BREEAM excellent and shortlisted for a BREEAM award.

The Cadogan Estate covers 93 acres of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and includes residential properties, offices, and retail space. We were employed by the Cadogan Estate to carry out the refurbishment and layout change to an existing residential property near Sloane Square.

Built in 1903 the original building comprised of two large family homes with staff areas. It was converted in 1934 to a three-storey 6-bedroom apartment on the lower floors with two-bedroom lateral apartments on the upper floors.

We completed a renewal of the existing three lateral apartments at second, third and fourth floor levels together with the splitting of a large six-bedroom triplex apartment into a one-bedroom duplex at basement and ground floor, a studio apartment at ground floor and a two-bedroom lateral apartment at first floor level. A key part of the project was the façade retention, we retained the front and side elevation whilst demolishing the rest of the building. A new basement was formed, and the superstructure was built using brick, block and steel increasing the gross internal area of the building.

To reconfigure the layout of the building we demolished the existing staircase from first to fourth floors to the front of the building and relocated the residential access to the building. As a result of this we had to reposition the non-original windows between the bays to the front façade. The windows were repositioned from the half landing level to the originally designed location on each floor. The non-original casements and sashes to the third and fourth floors of the two street facades were replaced with timber windows to match the original. We employed specialist heritage contractors to carry out the façade repairs due to ensure a quality finish to the original 1903 façade.

The two wings to the rear of the building were raised by one floor to allow for a better layout of the fourth-floor apartment. Due the addition of one floor to the property we had to reconfigure the fire escape by removing the existing metal external fire exit and replacing with an enclosed staircase set further into the building with the lift shaft moved next to the fire estate. The unsightly conservatory to the rear of the building was demolished with a terrace and green roof taking its place.

The standard of quality on this project were very high and the client’s team were extremely satisfied with the finish. This project was certified as BREEAM excellent and was shortlisted for a BREEAM award.

Project challenges

The main staircase was a contractor designed item, led by an architect concept design which was not buildable. Quinn London worked closely with the architect, client and our supply chain partners to advance a design that was aesthetically pleasing and provided a suitable solution to the architect’s design.

Logistically challenging, several highly technical requirements for the project including retaining the existing façade throughout the works and reconfiguration of floor heights.

Quality requirements were extremely high, and we had to ensure that we delivered the highest level of quality whilst maintaining and controlling the budget.