Euro House | Agentia Design

Agentia are working for Freshwater and collaborating with Vibe to provide engineering input for the conversion of a disused office building into homes. The project is being progressed under Permitted Development Rights (PDR), with Agentia’s engineering advice supporting reuse over demolition.

Street view of a four-storey commercial building with a brick and grey metal-clad frontage. Repeated vertical window bays sit above ground-floor shopfronts. — Existing office building proposed for residential conversion.

The development aims to deliver much-needed housing to London by creating 31 apartments within the frame of a disused office building over 3 existing upper floors. The design approach allows for the potential of another 2 additional levels of accommodation to be added at some point in the future to provide up to a potential 18 additional units.

The aim is to create 31 apartments within the frame of a disused office building across three existing upper floors. The design also allows for two additional levels of accommodation to be added in the future, potentially providing up to 18 further units. The reuse development will contribute to the delivery of much-needed housing in London.

Permitted development rights for office-to-residential conversions were initially introduced in 2013 as a temporary measure under Class O. New flexibilities introduced into the permitted development rights regime in March 2024 further supported the conversion of unused or underperforming commercial buildings into new homes.

Cutaway three-dimensional view of a multi-storey building structure. The existing lower portion contains repeated floor bays and perimeter columns, while an open framework extends across the roof and rises to form additional upper levels. — Structural arrangement for retaining the existing frame and supporting two additional storeys.

Three-dimensional massing view of buildings around the junction of High Street, Lampton Road and Kingsley Road. The proposed extension is highlighted in blue above the existing building, with surrounding building heights and neighbouring apartments labelled. — Scale of the two-storey extension in relation to the High Street and neighbouring buildings.

These measures formed part of a series of government initiatives to support a brownfield-first approach to the delivery of new homes. Michael Gove stated: “Today marks another important step forward in our Long-Term Plan for Housing, taking a brownfield first approach to deliver thousands of new homes where people want to live and work, without concreting over the countryside.”