For our (slightly delayed) Christmas trip, Barry’s studio continued the theme of housing estates and visited Maiden Lane Estate in Camden. From both an architectural and urban design perspective, Benson and Forsyth’s scheme from the 1970s is still really successful. The estate achieves a high density and takes advantage of the sloped topography to create unusual but high quality housing, private amenity spaces and public realm.

It was interesting to compare this original design with the new estate regeneration – a controversial discussion topic within the studio. Whilst, arguably, the new development was sympathetic in colour and materials to the 1970s design, it does not deliver the same level of detail. The addition of the tower has, however, made a direct connection in scale to the rapidly densifying King's Cross Central, our next stop on the trip…

Here we walked through the emerging masterplan, admiring/critiquing the detailing of the blocks and their façades. We also went to see Bell Phillips' Gasholder Park, which sits beside the three other former gasholders that encase a series of apartment buildings.

Our final stop was Central Saint Martins. We had a tour of the campus and explored some of the studios and workspaces. The most impressive space was undoubtedly the fashion and textiles studio lined with rows and rows of sewing machines, mannequins and reels of threads and wools. Stanton William’s design has created a series of amazing work and social spaces and celebrates the juxtaposition of old and new architecture.