Local architecture firm Cuozzo.Company has completed an innovative mixed-use infill project at 112 Peckham High Street in London, featuring a unique design organized around a communal lightwell and fern garden. The three-story building successfully addresses the challenges of urban development on a constrained site in southeast London.
The project includes one retail unit at street level and four residential apartments arranged strategically around a central lightwell. The site presented significant development challenges due to extensions on neighboring buildings and numerous existing windows in the shared walls on both sides, making conventional construction approaches difficult to implement.
To overcome these constraints, Cuozzo.Company designed the building around a deep central lightwell that serves multiple functions. This innovative solution provides essential green space and natural light for the apartments while ensuring that neighboring windows remain unobstructed, maintaining privacy and views for adjacent properties.
"Our response had to carefully respond to these windows in order to maintain privacy, light and views," explained founder Alessio Cuozzo. "This was the fundamental driving force behind the need for the central lightwell and its design as a light-filled, outdoor space. We sought to maximize the efficiency of space wherever we could to offset the space lost due to the lightwell window constraints."
The ground floor currently houses a retail unit occupied by a hairdresser, while the four apartments are distributed across both sides of the central lightwell on the upper floors. The residential units are connected by a concrete staircase and perforated walkways that are sheltered by metal bars designed to support climbing plants, creating a green corridor system.
The building's design incorporates thoughtful details throughout its vertical arrangement. Small bathroom windows overlook the courtyard at the lower levels, providing natural light while maintaining privacy. On the top floor, one apartment features an external terrace, while another showcases a distinctive sawtooth row of timber-framed windows that overlook a large planter, creating dramatic interior lighting effects.
Apartments located at the rear of the building have been provided with private balconies, offering residents outdoor space and city views. The front-facing units benefit from rows of large, deep-set windows with distinctive arched openings that project elegantly from the zinc-clad mansard roof, creating a striking architectural feature.
The material palette was carefully chosen to reflect the building's unique spatial organization around the lightwell. Black brick was selected for the street-facing facade and the narrow entrance corridor, while white brick is used internally throughout the lightwell area, creating a dramatic sense of "compression and release" as visitors move through the building.
"The full height, full width, black exterior sets the robust tone and expectation of what is within," Cuozzo explained. "The access from street to lightwell is also finished in black brick, and is relatively narrow, creating a sense of compression which finally releases on entering the lightwell." He added that "the mansard is finished with zinc shingles with a range of tones to give a lightly mottled effect and introduce a bit of grain into an otherwise stark material."
The walkways throughout the building are lined with metal bars specifically designed to support climbing plants, reinforcing the project's commitment to integrating natural elements into the urban environment. The front apartments feature the distinctive arched openings that have become a signature element of the design, providing both functional light and architectural character.
Cuozzo.Company, formerly known as Cuozzo Fleming, was established in 2015 and is based in London. The firm has become known for its innovative approach to urban infill projects that address the challenges of dense city development while creating quality living spaces.
This project joins other notable infill schemes recently completed across London, including a net-zero social housing complex in Hackney designed by Satish Jassal Architects and Spruce House by Ao-ft in Walthamstow. These projects demonstrate the ongoing evolution of London's architectural landscape through creative solutions to urban density challenges. The photography for the project was completed by Francesco Russo, documenting the successful integration of the building into its urban context.
