A review of a temporary accommodation facility in the heart of the City of London for the Architects’ Journal Homelessness issue. 

For the Architects’ Journal, I visited the Snow Hill Court project and reflected on its approach to providing essential services to rough sleepers in the city. Specifically considering how the building and the architects were able to negotiate a difficult site to deliver a sensitive, considered and humane spatial response.  

“From certain angles you can see how the building has bowed and moved over the past century and a half, its windows slightly out of plumb. It’s an idiosyncratic building that wears its history well and one can’t help but feel a sense of endearment towards it. It conjures up an image of a David among Goliaths, as it sits surrounded by blocks of impersonal offices and the rear façade of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, all towering above it.

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Despite the overshadowing of the site by neighbouring buildings, a soft light suffuses the internal arrangements during the day. The use of frosted acrylic screens admits light deep into the plan while maintaining a degree of privacy for users. Perhaps most impressive, however, considering that the practice was working within the constraints of a Grade II listing and the layout of a former schoolhouse, is that 11 of the 14 beds have direct proximity to a window.”