CZWG designs student block for Arsenal near Emirates Stadium

CZWG has submitted plans for a 284-room student accommodation block for Arsenal Football Club, close to its Emirates StadiumThe practice handed in documents to Islington Council for the 12-storey scheme at 45 Hornsey Road in north London.The scheme is for Ashburton Trading, a subsidiary of Arsenal FC, and will be sited next to London Metropolitan University.The block would host a mix of studio rooms and cluster flats supported by a common room, dining room, library, gym, dance studio, laundry and ‘contemplation rooms’.The project also includes new landscaped public realm designed by muf architecture/art.Designs include an arched façade mirroring the nearby railway viaduct as well as a roof terrace with a large circular planter and pergola structure.The building is in the form of a grand palazzoThe scheme would also create a pedestrian route between Holloway Road station and Hornsey Road and revitalise 21 dilapidated railway viaduct arches.Flexible commercial space would be provided by both the ground floor of the new student block and the restored rail arches.CZWG founder Piers Gough said: ‘The building is in the form of a grand palazzo fronting the extensive piazza and podium of the Emirates Stadium. The alternate triple-height arched openings of the base of the building relate to the height of the railway viaduct while single-storey rectangular vertical openings between deliver a human scale.‘The frontage terminates each end in flying half arches which dramatically extrude along the other two façades and meet in a double curve over the main student entrance. Doubled up windows to each room on the top floor make a distinctive cornice to the building form.’The practice said it had consulted with the council, the university, the Greater London Authority, Transport for London and Network Rail before submitting the plans.CZWG has already completed a 277-home scheme for Arsenal Football Club close to the Emirates Stadium.