HTA Design completes another two Croydon modular towers

College Road Tower is HTA's 11th project for Tide and its sister company Vision, which manufactured the volumetric modules used to create all the homes and upper-floor amenities. The maturity of their system and the strength of our ongoing working relationship with them, and the rest of their design team resulted in a 28-month build programme and less than four years from first concept to handover. We worked closely with their in-house design team from the outset to ensure deliverable solutions were embedded into every aspect of the planning design.

Our design emerged from an appreciation of the wider mid-century vision for Croydon town centre, which embraced an optimism in how new technology and higher density could improve quality of life. Our proposals seek to evolve these qualities for the priorities of 21st-century living and are legible in four different facets of our design: the civic ambition; the innovative co-living typology; the use of advanced modular construction; and the alternating, faceted appearance.

As the first co-living development approved by the GLA under the London plan and the first in Croydon, there was a great deal of debate with officers about the design. From the outset, HTA felt that the co-living community offered a way to address growing isolation in urban residents while increasing the supply of homes across London. Our research of nearly 200 international examples led to a final design with shared co-living concentrating the day-to-day shared uses around the entrance to capture activity as residents entered and left their homes each day. A complementary set of 'destination' shared event spaces was created at the top of the tower, culminating in a full roof terrace with spectacular views from 50 storeys.

Enclave: Croydon, the larger of the two towers, provides more than 2,800m² of shared amenity space for residents. The operator, Outpost Management, joined the design process, and its vision for these generous shared spaces added a further layer of richness and personality, including the introduction of a spa beside the gym, and the grand spiral stair that connects the roof terrace to the bar. The 817 co-living homes between these shared spaces are designed with a similar generosity, typically measuring 3.2m wide and around 25m², exceeding the comparable space per person with more conventional 'C3' homes. There are 19 co-living homes on a typical floor with almost every design unique, around three basic typologies. This variety is complemented by three different interior design configurations, aspects and orientations. Alongside the co-living element, the College Road tower also delivers 120 affordable homes (30 per cent of development by habitable rooms).

Together these 937 homes were constructed using 1,680 modules from Vision for one of the most sophisticated offsite construction projects ever delivered. Each home module was delivered fully fitted out and furnished from the factory with all of the homes installed in around 10 months. The façade was erected in parallel to the modules from mast climbers, further accelerating delivery.

The building's appearance references the nearby No 1 Croydon by Richard Siefert, through its alternating window clustering, faceted façade geometry and use of white glazed tiles as the main cladding. Another key influence was the adjacent Ten Degrees, also designed by HTA for Tide. While they share the same glazed terracotta cladding system, College Road has a white horizontal expression that deliberately contrasts the dark green vertical design of Ten Degrees. Our growing experience in the use of glazed terracotta, working with Century Facades and NBK terracotta led to a bespoke range of tile extrusions and finishes that reinforce the folds and reveals of the façade. Together all these different influences are composed into a discrete base that matches the shared uses, a central zone that subtly varies the rhythm of openings with the height, and a crown that articulates the destination spaces from the top of the tower. The lower 'shoulder' is separated by a shadow gap and expressed by a variation to the façade rhythm.

Reflecting HTA's belief in the power of post-occupancy evaluation, particularly given the research we had done to develop the co-living element of Enclave: Croydon, I was fortunate enough to be able to live and work there for three days in late October 2023. The building opened a few weeks earlier and Outpost had already created a welcoming atmosphere through its fantastic team, with lots of thoughtful touches. At this early stage the community is only just starting to build, but it was fantastic to meet people and hear a little of their stories and experiences of living at Enclave so far. I am already planning to try and return in a year's time to get to know more of the residents (and try the spa!).

It's spectacular to see College Road reach completion. After just over two years, we have completed close to 1,000 homes in Croydon, which is a testament to the potential of volumetric construction to deliver high-quality homes and transform formerly vacant sites into new pieces of city for Londoners.

With College Road, we are redefining the co-living asset class and setting a new standard for renting in the city. Working with the planning authorities, local communities, and our design teams, we have delivered a milestone project for the UK and volumetric construction.

The scheme demonstrates the design versatility of the Vision system, which allows for exceptional architectural quality as well as the ability to build at record-breaking heights with the 50-storeys achieved at Enclave: Croydon.