Breaking the spell of NLV with Motion

New London Vernacular (NLV), the brick-clad aesthetic that characterises most new housing in London, was adopted as a de-risked, developer strategy forged in the wake of the 2008 crash: easier to cost, design, build and sell, and, as a result, better at providing accurate land values than the icon-led regeneration projects of the Tony Blair years. Yet you could argue that NLV has almost become too popular. It has helped give shape to many fine buildings by some of the UK’s best housing architects but there are many bad examples out there too. And shouldn’t we be at least thinking of other ways to define the look feel of British housing in the 2020s? This desire, in part, helped us fashion a new aesthetic at Motion: a 300 home-development on Lea Bridge Road in Waltham Forest.

?Sculptural, stylish and controlled, Motion’s expressive architecture - Smart Deco anyone? ?? - is ranged across three striking towers which sit alongside two courtyard blocks rendered in dark brick.

The tower’s aerodynamic look, indicated by contrasting horizontal bands of matt brown and ivory gloss, is a contemporary take on Streamline Moderne, a style once used for local landmark buildings. In fairness NLV’s ‘London brick look’ has served the city well – and has made a pretty good neighbour to much of Georgian London, but out of curiosity – what other housing projects are experimenting with form and fa?ade and consciously eschewing NLV?