Neighbourhood JQ

Working alongside HBD, our proposals for Neighbourhood JQ have been granted planning!

Sitting on the edge of the Jewellery Quarter Conservation Area the existing site consists of a number of car showroom buildings that are of poor architectural quality and lack any relationship to the urban grain and enduring character of the Jewellery Quarter. Bisected by Camden Street, the site occupies a prominent position on the southern edge of the Jewellery Quarter.

The vision for this development is a residential led mixed-use scheme which creates a single, strong identity for this new piece of the city. Seven buildings will house 414 apartments, 5 roof top terraces, 700sqm of amenity space and 600sqm of commercial space, all set around a new publicly accessible garden and pedestrian route linking Newhall Hill and Camden Street. 

The site is located on the threshold between traditional scale Jewellery Quarter buildings (3-4 storey) and buildings of greater height in the city core (7-9 storey). The new buildings have been divided into 4 character typologies – smaller buildings taking inspiration from traditional JQ buildings, ‘factory’ buildings drawing on the 20th Century industrial language of the area with north light roofs, ‘edge’ buildings aligned to the city centre in scale and architecture and ‘special’ buildings which straddle the public spaces and act as high quality buildings within the street scene.  The ‘special’ buildings are intended to be the focal points and way markers along the new public routes and garden.

Each ‘special’ building is fully clad in bespoke dark blue and green glazed terracotta tiles of varying shape and scale. The use of terracotta is a theme that is continued around the site to form the base of prominent buildings in the ‘edge’ character zone and present a high quality material to the public realm and entrances in other character areas.

A limited palette of brick and terracotta is employed across all buildings, creating a family of buildings, which each have their own character, but collectively contribute to a sense of a new neighbourhood which repairs the conservation area and knits into the wider city core. 

The scheme has been designed to meet the RIBA 2025 whole life carbon targets.

Planning approved March 2023.