Exemplary Housing Estate

Regeneration in Europe

THEARCHITECTSJOURNAL

Contents
1
2

Texts
Introduction, Ivor Smith 5
Essay, Ellis Woodman 6
Buildings
Urban form
Grnby Strand, Brndby, Copenhagen, Denmark 10

Im Gut apartments, Zurich, Switzerland 13

Kings Crescent Estate, Hackney, London, UK 14

Tongeren Paspoel, Tongeren, Belgium 17

Osdorp, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 18

Infill & densification

La Chesnaie, Saint-Nazaire, France 22

Silchester Estate, Kensington & Chelsea, London, UK 27

Tybalds Estate Regeneration, Camden, London, UK 28

Remodelling

Ellebo Garden Room, Ballerup, Denmark 30

Rozemaai Apartment Blocks, Antwerp, Belgium 33

Splayed Apartment Blocks, Ommoord, Rotterdam,
The Netherlands 34
Boroughs

Colville Estate, Phase 1, Hackney, London, UK 38

Academy Street, Enfield, London, UK 41

South Kilburn Estate Regeneration Ely Court, Brent,
London, UK 42

The Bacton Low-rise Estate, Camden, London, UK 44

Goldsmith Street, Norwich, UK 47
Voices
Hackney Council, Estate Regeneration Team 50
Bacton Estate Residents Association, Sarah Robbins 51
Viewpoint, Owen Hatherley 52
Interview, Paul Karakusevic, Partner, Karakusevic Carson
Architects 54

PUBLISHING

AJ Publishing Editor James McLachlan

Sub editor CeciliaThom, Simon Aldous
Production editor Alan Gordon
Design Ana Schefer
Photography credits
Architectural Press Archive / RIBA Library Photographs Collection (p4-5)
HaworthTompkins (p9), Jan Bitter (p20-21), Philippe Ruault (p24),
Stefan Mller (p37), IoanaMarinescu (p48), Karakusevic Carson Architects (p49)
AJ editor Rory Olcayto
AJ art director BradYendle
AJ editorial director Paul Finch
Commercial director James MacLeod
Managing director of architecture and media Ben Greenish
EMAP chief executive Natasha Christie-Miller
Issued with The Architects Journal
For reprints call James MacLeod 020 7728 4582
Published June 2015 by Emap, powered by TopRightGroup

03

02

Texts

Introduction

04

What, apart from those things that are practically necessary, makes a
house a home? It is a place to feel secure, sheltered emotionally as well
as physically, a private place apart from the world outside. A house is
where people come together, it is also where they may choose to be alone.
Sometimes it is a place for peace and quiet, at other times a place to party.
Above all, the house is a place to belong, to have a sense of identity.
The housing in this book must be set against the background of those
many anonymous uniform developments that have been built on the
outskirts of cities, towns and villages in Britain and are unrelated to their
locality. It is here that the issue of identity is most acute, but how can it be
successfully addressed? There are valuable precedents. Groups of houses
form edges; these can be used to define streets, squares or landscaped
areas that you might pass through on your way home and perhaps have a
casual conversation with neighbours. This is where children might play,
supervised from nearby windows. The sensitive designer searches for the
particularities of each site and its relation to the existing urban grain.
There are continuing pressures of change. Different lifestyles affect
the house and its surroundings; increases in population and land values
impact on density; there is more mobility and car ownership; the internet
is influencing ways of working and shopping, as well as meeting together.
Consequently, there is need for innovative design. Some developers
attempt to achieve identity through the imposition of arbitrary forms and
a medley of different materials and colours, but these are superficial
gestures.What is required is patient reflection and an understanding of
the complex and discrete issues that generate a sense of place.
Ivor Smith, Architect, Park Hill Estate, Sheffield

Left and right The Park Hill Estate,

Sheffield, 1961

05

The house is a place to belong Ivor Smith

In a recent interview, architect and urbanist Hans

Kollhoff was asked for his views on the refurbishment
of the Netherlands post-war housing estates. I
wouldnt invest another cent in them, he said. The city
and good urban architecture are solid.Theyre built for
eternity. Its ridiculous to stretch the lifespan of those
failed blocks of flats another 10 or 20years by sticking
a bit more insulation in the elevations.Those buildings
are totally worthless.
Startling as this blanket dismissal of a whole era
of well-intentioned architectural production may
be, Kollhoff was far from the first to present it. As
far back as the 1970s, Charles Jencks identified
the demolition of MinoruYamasakis Pruitt-Igoe
housing estate (1) in StLouis, Missouri less than
20years after its construction as conclusive proof of
modern architectures failure to provide a model for
masshousing.
Previously [the estate] had been vandalised,
mutilated and defaced by its black inhabitants, he
wrote, and although millions of dollars were pumped
back, trying to keep it alive (fixing the broken elevators,
repairing smashed windows, repainting), it was finally
put out of its misery. Boom, boom, boom.
These doubts were shared, even by some of
the architects who were most influential on the
development of housing in the post-war years. In a
1970 interview about the design of their then underconstruction Robin Hood Gardens estate in east
London (2), Alison and Peter Smithson voiced distress
at the vandalism their work had suffered prior to its
completion. Alison went so far as to question the very
premise of state-sponsored housing provision, noting:
It may be that we should only be asked to repair the
roofs and add the odd bathroom to the old industrial
houses, and leave people where they are to smash it

up in complete abandon and happiness so that no one

has to worry about it any more.
The charge sheet against housing projects of
the post-war era extends across their technical,
urban and social deficiencies failings that, in
numerous cases, it would be impossible to dispute.
Political developments have further contributed
to their demonisation. In countries like France
and the Netherlands they are widely viewed as the
physical embodiment of failed immigration policies,
their lack of integration with the structure and
appearance of the historic city mirroring a perceived
rupture in society. Meanwhile, in Britain, Margaret
Thatchers liberalisation of the housing market
drastically reframed local authorities sense of their
responsibilities to these developments. After decades
of inadequate maintenance by the London Borough
ofTower Hamlets, Robin Hood Gardens now awaits
demolition, its population set to be rehoused as part
of a deal with the private sector, predicated on a
significant increase in the sitesdensity.
Faced with such a legacy, the pursuit of the common
good and the logic of the balance sheet might both
seem to point to comprehensive reconstruction
as the only way forward. But are there not other
considerations that demand to be weighed in the
balance? T
he environmental cost of destroying a
project that has stood for scarcely four decades, for
example, or the social impact of dissolving a now wellestablished community.The architectural merits of
such projects surely also deserve a more measured
assessment than the likes of Kollhoff and Jencks
have been prepared to extend them.The work of the
period is not without its shortcomings but there is
much of quality and still more that might be enhanced
throughintervention.
An argument for the value of refurbishment over
redevelopment lay at the heart of Frdric Druot,

06

Improvement over replacement Ellis Woodman

Anne Lacaton and Jean-PhilippeVassals PLUS,

a 2004 study commissioned by the French Ministry
of Culture and Communication. In opposition to a
national policy then guiding the replacement of the
post-war banlieues with the development of reduced
height and density, the authors made the case that
refurbishment strategies could be delivered for less
expense, while transforming the existing building
stocks space standards, environmental performance
and appearance.
Opening with an unequivocal statement of intent
Never demolish, never remove or replace, always
add, transform and reuse! PLUS argued that for
the 167,000 the state was then allocating for the
demolition and rebuilding of apartments, it was
possible to redesign, expand and upgrade between
two and three units of comparable size.The report
gave rise to an invited competition to test its findings
on the T
our Bois le Prtre (3) a characteristic
1960s high-rise building located on the periphery
of Paris. Druot, Lacaton andVassal went on towin
thecompetition.
Completed in 2011, this project involved the
replacement of the towers existing facade with a new
envelope comprising three layers of enclosure. First,
the buildings meanly dimensioned uPVC windows
the product of an earlier refurbishment undertaken
in the 1980s were exchanged for full-height, sliding,
double-glazed doors.Then the building was encased
in a structurally independent prefabricated steel
structure, extending the floorplate by 3m on each
facade.The inner 2m of this bolt-on comprises a winter
garden, defined by a secondary enclosure of singleglazed and polycarbonate sliding doors, while the
final metre is given over to a balcony protected by
a glass balustrade. Crucially, the phased nature of
the works allowed residents to remain in occupation
throughoutconstruction.

The dividends were many and considerable.

Bringing glazing to the floor improved the penetration
of daylight into the apartments and enabled the
elevated views towards the city to be exploited to
better effect. Meanwhile, residents heating bills were
reduced by 50per cent a saving that largely offset
the small increase in rent that followed the works
while the buildings formerly dowdy appearance was
transformed beyond recognition.The principal benefit,
however, was the provision of additional space. In the
case of the apartments occupying the corner of the
block, this increase more than doubled the floor area.
These more generous dimensions enabled the
removal of partition walls and the creation of multiple
means of accessing rooms. Accommodation that had
been originally conceived in strictly Existenzminimum
terms was suddenly invested with a sense of luxury
and even glamour.Whats more, the strategys cost
benefits exceeded those anticipated by the architects
when they had published PLUS the wholesale
replacement of one apartment equated with the cost
of extending and refurbishing between three and four
units under their approach.
The practices achievement quickly attracted
the attention of mayors across France, leading to
commissions for refurbishment projects of still-larger
scale. On completion this year, its remodelling of 530
dwellings ranged across three blocks in Bordeaux
will represent the most substantial application of the
strategy todate.
While Druot, Lacaton andVassals research
has focused on the enhancement of the individual
residential unit, the problems of many estates
not least Robin Hood Gardens lie as much in the
definition of their public areas. Ommoord (4), a
residential neighbourhood built in the 1960s on the
periphery of Rotterdam, is another example. Designed
by Lotte Stam-Beese (the wife of celebrated Dutch
architect Mart Stam), it occupies a parkland setting
and is composed primarily of monumental slab blocks
of inflected plan, each accommodating nine storeys
of gallery-accessed apartments. In 2000, the housing
association that manages the site asked Biq, the
architect, to develop a scheme for the remodelling of
four of these blocks, which it then realised in stages
over the course of nineyears.
The upgrading of the apartments technical
performance was one of this projects ambitions but
another that was no less central was the resolution
of the increasingly fraught relationships between
residents. As the architect explains: The departure

07

Essay

08

Buildings
Buildings
of the stable population of pioneers and the influx of
new tenants with different skin colours might be a
completely normal manifestation of urbanisation, but
for older residents it is a threat to their ways new
families parking their childrens bicycles on the access
gallery is their worst nightmare.
The clients desire to address these tensions meant
the architects task became as much an exercise in
political negotiation as design: the scheme emerged
out of a consultation process that Biq conceived and
managed with the buildings 2,000-plusresidents.
The result was a more socially compartmentalised
distribution of tenures, with two blocks being
designated for the exclusive use of older residents.
The continuous gallery access in the other blocks
was divided up into smaller lengths, supported by
the introduction of additional stair and lift towers in
steel and glass.The buildings encounter with the
ground was also addressed: garages were replaced
by a deeper and more powerfully articulated plinth,
which was occupied by care facilities in the buildings
designated for older residents and additional gardenfacing apartments in the others. As in Druot, Lacaton
andVassals work, the extensive use of prefabrication
served both as a means of achieving economies of
scale and of minimising disruption to residents.
The redesignation of blocks to accommodate
particular demographics meant not all residents
were able to remain in place but the commitment to
upgrade the buildings for the continued use of the
existing community stands in marked contrast to the
process undertaken at Sheffields Park Hill (5), where
refurbishment was achieved only after the substantial
privatisation of the 1960s estate.
When I was still at school [in the 1970s], Rick
Wessels of Biq said, I had a hope that one day
Rotterdams urban reconstruction project would be
finished and that then I could really enjoy it. Later,
when we were in college, a book was published called
The City is Never Completed, which documented
the process of urban change in Rotterdam over the
course of the past decade. It included some very rough
photographs of urban decay and I began to understand
that the city was not something that will reach an end;
it is a process that you have to keep working on.
A criticism often levelled at the generation of
post-war architects is that they failed to appreciate
that their work formed part of a historical continuity.
The challenges of post-war reconstruction and their
desire to forge a new social order led many to develop
proposals predicated on a fundamental rupture with

the past.Yet, in our present rush to sweep away the

often problematic legacy that this generation has
left us, do we not risk making precisely the same
mistakeagain?
Undoubtedly, there are instances in which
demolition can enable the creation of a richer urban
environment than both the imagination and resources
of the post-war generation proved capable of
delivering.The two social housing blocks PeterMrkli
completed in 2014 on Gutstrasse in Zurich, for
example, represent a welcome replacement of the
low-rise terraces that previously occupied their
site. Of seven storeys, the new blocks each extend
for more than 100m in length: an arrangement that
acknowledges Gutstrasses status as a significant
route into central Zurich altogether more convincingly.
In a city like London, which faces the task of
accommodating as many as one million new residents
over the coming decade, there are sure to be many
similar cases in which building anew offers an
opportunity to clarify the citys urban form. It is crucial,
however, that we stop thinking of demolition as the
default option when presented with the challenge
of addressing our ageing Modernist building stock.
The brave future of which the generation of postwar architects dreamt may now be a compromised
and conflicted reality but it remains rich in social,
environmental and cultural capital.We should not
dispense of it lightly.

Opposite
Silchester estate by
Haworth Tompkins

Buildings

Grnby Strand

Urban form One criticism that has been levelled at

the social housing of the post-war era is that much
of it fails to adequately articulate shared space.
In their commitment to a Corbusian vision of the
city as a green and perforate terrain populated
by standalone structures, many developments
of the period struggled to achieve an integration
with wider urban structures or to offer spaces that
allowed for rich forms ofinhabitation.
Each project in this chapter has sought to
address such shortcomings through a radical
reappraisal of the relationship between public
space and built form. In the case of those
at Brndby in Copenhagen and Osdorp in
Amsterdam, existing public routes have been lent
greater articulation, and significantly diversified
both spatially and programmatically. The isolated
and isotropic character that these estates formerly
presented has been replaced by a new sense of
connectedness and hierarchy.
Meanwhile, at Kings Crescent in London,
new buildings establish courtyards that better
relate the development to the form and character
of the surrounding streets, while establishing
public spaces that enjoy greater intimacy
andsurveillance.
Peter Mrklis buildings on Gutstrasse in
Zurichrepresent the one comprehensive
redevelopment project in the selection. Here,
a low-rise development of suburban grain has
been replaced by a pair of slab blocks of a scale
that brings a more metropolitan definition to the
street. The connection being sought is not to the
pre-existing fabric but to how Gutstrasse one
of the principal routes into the city centre might
develop in yearsto come.

The challenging scale and

repetitive architectural expression
of Brndby Strand Parkerne led
to calls for its demolition, but by
addressing the public realm and
introducing new differentiated
buildings BCVAs strategy aims to
build on its potential.
Completed in 1973, it was
the largest housing scheme in
Copenhagens post-war expansion,
with 2,900 homes in a variety of
typologies arranged across a 2.5km
strip. Cars, bicycles, pedestrians
and buses were strictly segregated
in a comprehensive infrastructure

set on different levels. BCVA won

a competition in 2014 to renew
the area, proposing an extensive
transformation of buildings, urban
space, traffic and landscape.
The overarching aim is to
break 40 years of isolation and
develop the scheme in coherence
with the neighbouring park and
surroundings.
An essential part of this is
to create a diverse path for
pedestrians and cyclists that
spans the full 2.5km through the
housing strip. The pathway will
ensure there is a public space
for all the inhabitants to stroll,
meet, hang out and use to get
from one place to another. New
buildings are proposed along the

pathway to create an active urban

environment. Another key part of
the plan are four unique plazas,
designed to create lively social
spaces and lend each part of the
scheme a distinct identity.
In addition, a differentiation in
facades, detailing and layout of
the apartments aims to break the
monotony, and improve quality of
life. The new facades minimise
energy consumption and provide
a range of window formats, along
with the possibility to extend either
the kitchen or living room with a
balcony. The project will become
the first social housing scheme
in Denmark to achieve DGNB
(German Sustainable Building
Council) certification.

Credits
Start on site 2016
Completion 2024
Units 2,900 (8,000 inhabitants)
Gross internal floor area 300,000m
Procurement route Competitionwin
Construction cost 450 million (total
estimated cost including urban space
and landscaping)
Landscape architect Kragh &Berglund
Engineer MOE
Client DAB, Bo-Vest, FA09 and Lejerbo
housing associations

11

10

1 Grnby Strand, Brndby,

Copenhagen, Denmark
by BCVA and Domus Arkitekter

WATER PLAZA

ACTIVITY PLAZA

1.Water plaza
2. Activity plaza
3. Market plaza
4. Nature plaza

50

100

GRNBY STRAND
Situation plan 1:5000

200

500
0 25m

Grnby Strand
Densification
Demolished
bridges

Small entrance
space for tower

Integration with
adjacent park
Above Grnby Strand was completed in 1973

Above New plazas provide lively spaces for

inhabitants to meet

12

Ground floor plan of tower

The project for 145 apartments for a private

housing association is in the west of Zurich,
about 2km from the city centre. Extensions
to the city were built behind the Sihlfeld
cemetery, city extensions were built in the
mid-20th century following a ClassicalModernism-influenced urban plan of
settlements, or Siedlungen in German.
The houses were oriented towards the light
with green spaces in between, sometimes
with the long facade facing the street,
sometimes the short facade, in no particular
order. In two schemes the architects showed
how small green spaces between groups
of houses could be unified into a generous
park, protected from the street. Mrkli also
proposed the cemetery should have a second
entrance whereas it used to be on the edge
of the city, the city has long grown around it.
Instead of replacing each block, the
architects built two very long buildings to
create a facade with a strong presence
relating to the whole collective space of the
street.The space in front of the houses is
raised a little from street level to have a gentle
separation of the street and the forecourt.
The laundry rooms were situated as singlestorey annexes next to the entrances, and the
existing trees were retained to create a space
where neighbours can interact.
A private housing association is not
allowed to make profit, so construction
costs directly affect rents.Therefore, Mrkli
aimed to build affordable apartments within
the city using economical construction
methods while ensuring a high quality of
urbanarchitecture.

1
B

Key
N
 ew pathways and
activity plazas
Existing housing
New housing
1. Community centre
2. Rainwater drainage

Buildings: Urban form

0 1m

Credits
Start on site 2010
Completion 2014
Units 145
Gross internal floor area27,060m2
Form of contract Total contractor
(price and timeguarantee)
Construction cost 42.1million
Construction cost per m2 2,869
Landscape architect Nipkow
Landschaftsarchitektur
Client Gutstrasse Housing Association

13

Demolished building

2 Im Gut Apartments, Zurich, Switzerland

by Studio Mrkli

Kings Crescent Estate

3 Kings Crescent Estate, Hackney,

London, UK by Karakusevic Carson
Architects and Henley Halebrown
Rorrison

Credits
Start on site Spring 2015
Completion 2017 (Phase 1)
Units 765
Gross internal floor area 24,000m
Procurementroute Competition win
Estimated construction cost 52million
Public realm MUF Architecture/Art
Client London Borough of Hackney

Below left The first two phases involve

269 new and 101 refurbished homes
Below New buildings have ground-floor
units and amenity space for family units

15

street-accessed ground-floor units,

and a high-quality public realm
is proposed around the estates
perimeter to stitch it into the
surrounding streets.
The three new buildings, made
from high-quality brick, have been
designed to respond to both the
strong massing of the existing
building, as well as the Victorian
townscape of Clissold Park and
surrounding 19th-century terraced
and semi-detached housing.
Varying in scale from five to 12
storeys in height, common aspects
of the new buildings include groundfloor units that are accessed via
their own front door, generous
communal entrances and a large
amenity space for family units.

14

Kings Crescent is an ambitious

estate regeneration project
involving the comprehensive
redevelopment of Kings Crescent
Estate in Hackney.
Following a collaborative
competition, in September 2013
Karakusevic Carson Architects
was appointed to lead a team of
architects that included Henley
Halebrown Rorrison and public
realm designer MUF Architecture/
Art. Karakusevic Carson Architects
is leading the project in the first two
phases of the masterplan, which
involves 269 new homes and 101
refurbished homes.

The refurbishment of Kings

Crescent Estate forms part of the
London Borough of Hackneys wider
estate regeneration programme.
The properties are in a bad state
of repair and have poor-quality,
overlooked public spaces. As a
result, the estate feels inward
looking and disconnected from
thesurrounding townscape.
Our approach was to seek to
reintegrate the estate with its
surrounding townscape of Victorian
streets and public spaces.This was
achieved by creating a series of
robust courtyard blocks, combining
the existing and proposed buildings
as well as creating a series of welldefined and overlooked streets and
public spaces that are connected
through the site. Existing garage
units will be converted to new

Buildings: Urban form

Key
Refurbished housing
New housing

0 5m

Kings Crescent Estate

Above The existing Kings Crescent estate

Above Render of proposed scheme

0 1m

16

3 bed duplex plan

The project area is located on a rectangular

plot in the city of Tongeren, Belgium.
Currently, the site is characterised by
threehigh-rise tower blocks, surrounded
byparkland and open space that lacks
identity and character. In addition, the
192units were experiencing increasing
technical and constructional problems.
As a response, this project introduces a
high-quality public realm befitting its location
in the centre of the city. A strong urban
framework of new civic spaces, community
facilities, communal gardens and residential
streets was established all of which have a
distinctive character.
S333s approach has been to redesign
the blocks with a focus on increasing the
quality of accommodation for the residents
and the quality of environment for the local
community. The residents will remain on site
and so the existing 192 units will be replaced
by 192 new ones.This has resulted in a
complex choreography of phasing, whereby
decanting, demolition and construction are
done incrementally over a four-year period
to ensure residents can remain on site at all
times. This work must also be done while
ensuring that important Roman ruins are
left untouched.The complexity of working in
a Roman site of archaeological importance
meant work had to be undertaken within
a substantially reduced area namely the
boundary of the foundations of the existing
towers and a small basement car park.
A combination of medium-rise blocks
and low-rise terraces form an ensemble of
differentiated spaces. These courtyards,
gardens and streets define a much clearer
set of thresholds between public and private
life than exists.The various relationships
between garden, path, gallery and building
are used as devices to create different levels
of privacy and a variety of unit types.

Buildings: Urban form

0

5m

Credits
Start on site August 2015
Completion December 2020
Units 192
Gross internal floor area 15,705m2
Procurement route Public tender
Construction cost 18.3 million
Construction cost per m2 950
Structural and M&E engineer Grontmij Belgium
Landscape architect S333 Architecture
andUrbanism
Client Woonzo

17

4 Tongeren Paspoel,Tongeren, Belgium

byS333 Architecture and Urbanism

Osdorp
5 Zuidwestkwadrant, Osdorp,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
by De Nijl Architecten, Wiel Arets
Architects and Atelier KempeThill
Osdorp is one of the six districts
known as the Westerlijke
Tuinsteden (Western Garden Cities)
of Amsterdam, which were built
following the Congrs International
dArchitecture Moderne principles
in response to the housing shortage
after the Second World War.
The lengthy process of renewal
began in 1993, and the major
new-build phases began in 2004.
The approach was to diversify the
tenures and housing typologies
and to improve the relationships
between public, communal and
private spaces.
The reconfiguration of the
large-scale slab blocks to create
closed courtyards was achieved
by a combination of refurbishment,
demolition and new-build projects.
Improved park design, including
the creation of built edges, aims

Osdorp location plan showing housing areas

to transform the perception of

Osdorp from failed estate to a
renewedneighbourhood.
The project centred around two
main elements: the framework
and the building zones. Because
of the urban development around
Zuidwestkwadrant, parts of the
framework had acquired a new
role in the city and had lost their
previous identity.The urban
development strategy aimed to
transform these parts, thereby
giving the area a new identity.
One of the key projects in
Zuidwestkwadrant is the widening
of a strip of greenery into a city
park; the line of six towers forms
itsspatial boundary.
The towers are grouped in pairs
on a substructure containing
facilities, forming a court on the
edge of the park.The court gives
access to two towers along low
garden walls and under a wide
portico.The garden flowers
all year round and determines
thecharacterof the court.

The towers were constructed

using industrial methods and fully
prefabricated load-bearing facade
elements, which allowed flexible
configuration of the floor space.
The urban architecture supports
the spatial effect of the project
on different scales, namely the
silhouette of the row of towers along
the park and the intimacy of the
gardens between the towers.
The new buildings include
four towers along the park edge
with transparent ground floors
designed by Wiel Arets Architects.
The introduction of low-rise
terraced homes by Atelier Kempe
Thill diversifies the housing and
introduces street-basedtypologies.

Key
A. Zuidwestkwadrant
B. Sloterplas
C. Rembrandtpark
D. Leylaan study

Credits
Start on site 2002
Completion 2004
Units 238
Gross internal floor area 36,000m
Construction cost 23 million
Main contractor BAMWoningbouw
Landscape architect Michaelvan Gessel
Client Het Oosten housing corporation

0100m

Key
1. New parks
2. Street converted in road with retail
3. New schools
4. Housing by De Nijl Architecten
5. Housing by Wiel Arets
6. Housing by Atelier Kempe Thill

19

18

Zuidwestkwadrant plan
(existing left, proposed right)

300m

6
5

0 50m
N

100m

100m

Typical plan

Buildings: Urban form

0 1m

Osdorp town houses by Atelier Kempe Thill

Top The towers of the existing estate

Above The new Wiel Arets towers are
located on the park edge

21

20

Osdorp

Buildings

La Chesnaie

Infill and densification While post-war housing

renewal projects of the 1980s and 1990s tended to
favour comprehensive redevelopment, the past
decade has seen a growing awareness of the
advantages of more strategic intervention. Lacaton
& Vassals extension and remodelling of a tower at
La Chesnaie, an estate in the French city of SaintNazaire, is the latest of a series of projects the
practice has designed predicated on retention and
addition, rather than demolition andrebuilding.
Always conceived with the aim of enabling
residents to remain in occupation throughout
construction, each of these schemes has
significantly expanded the floorplates of the
retained apartments while allowing for the creation
of less compartmentalised plans. The fact that
they have also proved markedly cheaper than
rebuilding is certain to ensure their influence
intheyears ahead.
Meanwhile, a number of ongoing projects in
London demonstrate the potential of renewal
strategies based on adding buildings to formerly
underdeveloped sites. The London Borough of
Camdens redevelopment of the Tybalds Estate
is one example. Designed by Mae and Duggan
Morris, the proposed additions serve both as a
means of cross-subsidising improvements to
the existing fabric and of better integrating the
post-war development into the urban grain of
surrounding Bloomsbury.
Camden is just one of a number of central
London boroughs that has audited its landholdings
over the past decade and discovered significant
possibilities for infill. The escalation of land values
in the capital has played a vital role in enabling
suchdevelopments.

La Chesnaie in Saint-Nazaire
is typical of 1970s urbanism,
consisting of Modernist towers
and slab blocks. The area has a
poor reputation. However, it is well
located close to the city centre,
has an established population and
is in a now mature landscape.
The estate was selected as part
of an urban regeneration scheme
that involved demolishing four
large towers containing 60 flats.
In 2006, Saint-Nazaires social
housing office, Silne, recognising
potential in the solidly built and
well-maintained buildings, asked
Lacaton & Vassal to consider
renovating another smaller tower
on 3 rue des Ajoncs with a view to
possibly retaining the remaining
towers on the site.
The 10-storey tower comprises
of 40 flats. Its solid concrete
construction allowed lightweight
metal extensions to be attached
the south-east facade of the
building, adding an extra 33m to
each flat. In practice, this equates
Key
New wings
Existing towers/
future refurbished
housing
0

5m

Right A light metal

extension was added to
the south-east facade

to an extra bedroom, a balcony

and a small, glazed conservatory.
The flats were also reconfigured
internally: the bathroom moved to
the bedroom and the old bathroom
became storage.
Given the large plot on which
the tower sat, the plan also
includes two additional wings
constructed using a similar
lightweight steel construction
technique, they are connected to
the north and western ends of the
existing tower. Each new wing
has its own entrance and vertical
circulation. At ground level, an
existing car park was covered
with an accessible green roof. The
final configuration of the building
comprises 80 units 40 renovated
and 40 new. The hope is that this
project will prove that the other
remaining towers do not need to
bedemolished.
Credits
Start on site 2012
Completion 2014
Units 80
Gross internal floor area10,282m
Construction cost 4.7million
Engineers CESMA, PLBI, AREA,
Cardonnel and Guy Jourdan
Client Silne

23

22

1 La Chesnaie, Saint-Nazaire, France

by Lacaton & Vassal, Frederic Druot
Architecture, Julien Callot and
Mabire-Reich

25

24

La Chesnaie

ch. 3

La Chesnaie

2 Silchester Estate, Kensington and Chelsea,

London, UK by HaworthTompkins

HOUSING TRANSFORMATION AND DENSIFICATION

ST NAZAIRE LA CHESNAIE
La Chesnaie typical plan

Existing typology plan

Existing
bathroom
Kitchen
Bed 1
SdB
<3m 2

rangement
cuisine

cuisine
entre

ch. 1

Accessibilit
handicap
d = 1,5 m

rangt

Bed 2

sjour

sjour

ch. 3
6

Bed 3

entre

sdb +
lingerie

SdB
<9m2

ch. 2

10

ch. 1

ch. 2

ch. 3

11

2
12

1
13

16

15

14

existant

transform

surface habitable

79,08 m2

91,98 m2

jardin d'hiver

20,8 m2

espace habitable

79,08 m2

112,78 m2

5,5 m2

13,6 m2

T4 PROJET

balcon

0,175

Existing
bathroom

jardin d'hiver

EDF

Internal reconfiguration plan

balcon

Kitchen

+12,90 m2
+33,70 m2
+8,10 m2

LL

1,5

E.P.

1
2
4

0,2

C
F

sjour
ch. 1

balcon

ch. 2

ch. 3

LL

SL

Storage

Kitchen

LV

balcon

existant

transform

surface habitable

79,08 m2

91,98 m2

jardin d'hiver

20,8 m2

espace habitable

79,08 m2

112,78 m2

5,5 m2

13,6 m2

T4 PROJET

balcon

1,5

LL/SL

SL

SL

LL

LL

sjour
34,2 m2

0,21

+33,70 m2
+8,10 m2

GT

LL/SL

E.P.

1,5

Living
space

Bed 2

0 1m

Bed 3
Bed 1

LV

+12,90 m2

E.P.

Relocated
bathroom

LV

0,05

New typology plan

jardin d'hiver

LV

0,3

Winter garden
Balcony

CURRENT FLOOR 0 1m

Buildings: Infill and densification

5m

balcon

T4 PROJET
The scheme, designed around a new
surface habitable
communal garden, has reinstated the
jardin d'hiver
traditional street pattern
to provide 112 new
4
espace habitable
balcon
mixed-tenure homes, which integrate an
existing 20-storey tower within a new urban
block. Corners are animated with public and
community facilities, and a mews street
has been created alongside the elevated
railway line of theTube, supported by a
series of arches that will be bought into new
commercial use.
Achieving Code for Sustainable Homes
level 4 across all tenures, family townhouses
for social rent sit alongside shared-ownership
and market-sale apartments all units are
dual aspect. The scale of the development
ranges from four to nine storeys, increasing
at the prominent corners and mediating with
the scale of the existing tower to create a
cohesive and integrated community.
Two tones of brick are used: a rich buff
brick predominates, while a lighter gault
brick is proposed where the blocks set
back at higher levels. Street-facing facades
are articulated with a plinth of steppedprofile brickwork. Openings have a vertical
emphasis, with regular repeated proportions,
while large, external balconies are recessed
on the street frontages or project over the
communal garden within.
Artist Nathan Coley has produced a
large-scale sculpture located on the roof of
the new development. Identical small-scale
sculptures will be gifted to each occupant and
a published booklet will document the project.

0,36

jardin d

27

26

16

ch. 2

entre

sdb +
lingerie

SdB
<9m2

Winter garden

0,2

10

sjour

11

rangt

ch. 3

cuisine

Accessibilit
handicap
d = 1,5 m

12

entre

ch. 1

13

cuisine

sparatif

E.P.

rangement

1,5

14

SdB
<3m 2

15

Bed 2

AEP

Living
space

Bed 1

ch. 3

Living
space

ch. 1

Credits
Start on site November 2010
Completion April 2015 (phase 1), November 2015
(phase 2)
Units 112
Gross internal floor area12,295m
Form of contract JCT Design and Build 2011
Estimated construction cost 20.9million
Estimated construction cost per m 1,700
Main contractor Mace
Structural engineer Conisbee
Services engineers Designbrook and Max Fordham
Acoustic consultant Max Fordham
Quantity surveyor Baily Garner
Artist Nathan Coley
Community artist Constantine Gras
Client Peabody

exis

79,0

79,0

5,

Tybalds Estate

3 Tybalds Estate regeneration,

Camden, London, UK
by Tibbalds Planning and
Urban Design, Duggan Morris
Architects,Mae Architects and
Avanti Architects

initially between Duggan Morris

Architects and Mae Architects,
who were selected to work
alongside Avanti Architects and
landscape architect Camlins.
The project will deliver 93 new
infill homes occupying underused
spaces with new-build apartments
and houses, as well as improved
public realm, such as the open
play space on Orde Hall Street.
The proposals create clear new
routes to aid navigation through the
site and give existing buildings a
street address.They aim to create
better-defined and overlooked
public space with mews houses
and mid-rise blocks that have a
relationship with public space.

Tybalds Estate is part of Camden

Councils Community Investment
Programme a 15-year plan
to invest money in schools,
homes and community facilities.
Tibbalds Planning and Urban
Design was appointed to lead a
multidisciplinary design team to
deliver the estate regeneration
through a design competition.
The winning scheme was a
collaborative partnership formed

The full project team worked

closely with residents on the estate
to ensure the plans reflected
their needs. Building high-density
schemes in historic, existing and
occupied sites is highly complex
and requires the careful handling of
competing pressures.
It was vital to ensure local
households would move to more
suitable new homes nearby.This
was achieved by designing a more
secure, distinctive and attractive
estate, which was tested and
communicated in consultation
events.The desire to build beautiful,
viable homes and spaces is
challenging but is the core essence
of this collaborative project.

Credits
Start on site 2016
Completion 2018
Units 93
Gross internal floor area6,304m
Form of contract Design and
build (two stage)
Construction cost 28million
Client London Borough of Camden

Existing Blemundsbury block

Proposed rooftop
extension

Far left Design diagram

Left The existing scheme (top)
and render of proposal (bottom)

Proposed CHP

Proposed side
extension

Proposed two-storey and

three-storey terraces

Proposed lower
ground-floor homes

29

28

Key
A. Remodelled block
B. New terraces

B
B
B

A
B
B

Buildings: Infill and densification

0

10m

Tybalds Estate ground floor plan

0 1m

Remodelling Each project shown in this chapter

represents a remodelling of that quintessential
element of post-war housing: the slab block.
The type has drawn criticism on a range of
counts, most notably its failure to cultivate social
interaction between residents; the alienating
character of its semi-public circulation spaces;
and its inability to structure the territory that
surrounds it.
Each project included here seeks to
demonstrate that such shortcomings are not
inherent to the type and can be significantly
ameliorated through strategic intervention. Both
Atelier Kempe Thills project for the Rozemaai
estate in Antwerp and Adam Khans scheme at
the Ellebo estate in Copenhagen wrap the existing
buildings with heavily glazed enclosures in the
former case, to provide an acoustic barrier and
wider choices for public circulation, in the latter
to offer apartments private winter gardens. In
both instances, the strategy serves as a means
of improving the buildings environmental
performance while establishing a more expansive
relationship between interior and landscape.
Biq and Hans van der Heijden Architects
remodelling of a splayed apartment block on the
Ommoord estate in Rotterdam does not expand
the apartments floor area but achieves similar
ends through a strategy of reglazing and the
redesign of the buildings formerly semi-opaque
balustrades. In each case the existing buildings
relationship to its encompassing territory is further
improved by the introduction of new uses at
ground level, offering animation and surveillance
to spaces that were formerly under-occupied
andhostile.

Ellebo Garden Room

1 Ellebo Garden Room, Ballerup,

Denmark by Adam Khan Architects
with Daniel Serafimovski
Kristine Jensens Tegnestue
Price & Myers

Main image
Isometric of proposal
Above left Existing scheme
dates back to the 1960s
Left Proposed scheme

The Nordic Build Challenge

was set up by the five Nordic
Countries to prototype sustainable
approaches to the legacy of postwar industrialised housing. Ellebo
is a very typical 1960s estate, with
a set of problems familiar from
across Europe. The project draws
on the work of Lacaton & Vassal to
achieve a radical environmental
and social sustainability.
The internal layouts are adjusted
to give larger, double aspect flats,
and the facades are completely
replaced, all without decanting the
residents. This is possible through
a surgical approach to the existing
panel structure and by using new
prefabricated facade techniques.
The facades are given a new
hierarchy the outer elevations
are highly insulated, simple and
economical while those facing into
the shared garden are given winter
gardens and balconies.
These deliver superb
environmental performance in a
simple robust way, but also give
the residents a new seasonally
flexible set of rooms. The balconies,

vertically proportioned, articulated

into bays and made of robust
precast concrete, form a dignified,
elegant framework for the social
life of the estate. This refocus
towards the centre animates
the shared spaces and fosters a
strong sense of local identity. The
new-build elements of the project
further help to give definition and
coherence to this new garden
room. An energetic process
of resident engagement will
transform the shared landscape
from a barren municipal green to
a lively and diverse set of gardens,
by offering opportunities to
unleash and cultivate the sense of
ownership so often suppressed in
public housing.
The architecture acts as
a robust but nuanced frame
for a more plural and diverse
community to develop; one that
develops organically from the
existing group of residents and
that caters for contemporary
desires for individual expression
and autonomy.
Credits
Start on site 2016
Completion 2019
Units 260
Gross internal floor area22,880m
Construction cost 26million
Client KAB-Bolig, Copenhagen

31

30

Buildings

Ellebo Garden Room

2 Rozemaai Apartment Blocks, Antwerp,

Belgium, by Atelier Kempe Thill, Osar
architects and LandLandscape architects

E xis ting

Existing

E xtens ion

Extension

New ins ulated facade

New insulated facade and roof extension

W inter-G ardens & B alconies

Winter garden and balconies

A cces s es

Accesses

S hared G arden

Shared garden

Key
Ellebo Garden renovation
androof extension
Extended block
Remodelled facade

33

32

Detail facade section

The remodelling of the Rozemaai housing

scheme in Antwerp by Atelier Kempe
Thill aims to address the problems of
pollution from the adjacent motorway and
harbour while connecting residents to the
neighbouring park. It will evolve over three
phases.
The first phase involves demolishing the
vertical circulation and lift shafts, leaving only
the concrete framework and gallery. Following
this, new staircases and lifts will bookend
each block, constructed using a cost-efficient
tunnel formwork method. Adding a new
aluminium-framed glazed gallery and closing
the previously open-air areas with a full
glass facade creates a sound barrier around
the building protecting it from noise from
the nearby main road.The glazed addition
will also improve the buildings thermal
performance. New winter gardens give
residents views of the neighbouring park.
The final phase will see the floorplate
opened by removing existing cross walls to
create an open space from facade to facade.
Timber-framed infill walls will be removed,
thereby merging smaller units to form larger
apartments. New typologies are introduced,
including maisonettes at ground floor.
Apharmacy will also be integrated into the
ground floor.

Demolition P lan Demolition P lan

EasFloor
t Bl oc k - Upper Floor
Eas t Bl oc k - Upper

Demolition plan: east block upper floor

0

Buildings: Remodelling

0.5m

New wall / Infill

New wall / Infill
Demolished
/ Widened
Demolished / Widened

New L ayout
New L ayout
ombination
two flats
and addition
C ombination of Ctwo
flats and of
addition
of winter
gardenof winter garden
Existing bedroom

Remodelled bedroom

New layout : combination of the two flats

and addition of winter garden

0 1m

D aylight A nalys D
is aylight A nalys is
heF target
of 3%inDthe
F isdouble
reached
the
double
as pec t living room
T he target of 3%T D
is reached
as in
pec
t living
room

Credits
Start on site September 2015 (planned)
Completion September 2017 (planned)
Units 107 units, 1 drug store
Gross internal floor area 15,155m2 gfa total 2 blocks
56-111m2 gfa/ unit ( 1-3 bedroom apartments)
12-16 m2 gfa / unit private terrace
Form of contract or procurementroute
selected competition first prize (2011)
Estimated construction cost 9,784,923
Estimated construction cost per m 691
Client Woonhaven Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium
(housing corporation)

Splayed Apartment Blocks

N
5m

34

3 Splayed Apartment Blocks,

Ommoord, Rotterdam, the
Netherlands, by Hans van der
Heijden Architect / Biq
Built in 1968, the larger part of
the Ommoord residential district
consists of multi-storey blocks in
a park-like setting. In recent years,
its demographic had changed
significantly and the buildings
needed an overhaul.
Many of the problems that had
slowly arisen could be traced back
to the design of the communal
access system. The residents of
the 176 dwellings in each splayed
building shared two lifts and one
entrance. Newer households, which
had varied economic and ethnic

backgrounds, were unfamiliar

with the delicate codes of the older
occupants, many of whom had
been in residence since the blocks
were first completed.Two of the
buildings (Blocks A and B) were
redeveloped as accommodation
for older people, together with a
medical centre.The accessibility
of these was enhanced, and new
apartments were added on the
ground floor.
The remaining two blocks (C and
D) were to be redeveloped within
the customer choice concept
(the Dutch equivalent of Right to
Buy). Owing to the financial model,
which allowed residents to either
buy the flat outright, rent the shell
of the flat and buy the interior or

simply rent, the diversity of the

residents was expected to be
substantial. The proposal was to
divide the slabs into autonomously
functioning segments, each of
which would have its own access
system. The existing strips of
gallery and balcony were broken
up because it was unlikely that a
long access deck would work on
the commercial market. Short and
clearly arranged private decks
are the result. New lift shafts and
emergency staircases were added
to the block, articulating the main
volume of the blocks. All firstfloor flats have their front door at
groundlevel.

Credits
Start on site 2007
Completion 2009
Units 704
Gross internal floor area77,074m
Form of procurement route
Negotiated contract
Construction cost 38.5million
Construction costs per m net
651 excludingVAT
Client Woonbron, Rotterdam,
Netherlands, in cooperation with
Residents DesignPanel

35

0

Top Block b1 flats plan

Above Existing scheme built in
1968 and New building
Left Site plan showing existing
scheme (yellow)
Top right Remodelled building

Buildings: Remodelling

0

100m

Existing ground floor flat

New ground floor flats

for the elderly

knikflats ommoord

0

1m

37

37

36

Splayed Apartment Blocks

Buildings

38

1 Colville Estate, Hackney, London,

UK by Karakusevic Carson
Architects

Boroughs In 1975, the proportion of UK homes

built and managed by local authorities reached
a record high of 60 per cent an unrecognisable
situation from today. Of the 122,590 homes built
in England in 2013, only a fifth constituted social
housing and, of those, local authorities were
responsible for the construction of a small fraction.
Yet, as the projects gathered in this chapter
indicate, councils are in the process of reclaiming
a role as housing providers in no uncertain
terms. The impetus has been a relaxation of
the mechanisms by which council housing can
be funded. Where rental income from council
housing was previously taken by the Treasury
and pooled nationally, recent changes have
enabled local authorities to redirect it towards the
construction of new homes.
Given that Londons population is escalating at
double the rate of the rest of the country, it is no
surprise that boroughs in the capital have been
among the first to seize this opportunity. Newham
has committed itself to the construction of 20,000
new council homes. Southwark, which is already
Londons largest social landlord, aims to deliver a
further 10,000 by 2043. It has been 30 years since
councils were building homes in those kind of
numbers, requiring a whole culture of housing
delivery to be reinvented. Yet the performance of
the housing built in the post-war period can still
provide a valuable guide for current practice
ensuring that the technical and social problems
that dogged many developments of the period are
not repeated.

The Colville Estate is located in the

southern part of Hackney, close
to the border of Islington, with the
Regents Canal to the north and
Shoreditch Park to the south.
The existing estate is owned
by Hackney Council and consists
of 438 homes, predominantly in
medium height linear blocks,
typical of the post-war period.
The estate was poorly planned
and inward-looking with many
illegible building entrances, a lack
of clear streets and a lot of unloved,
underused land.
Hackney Council appointed
Karakusevic Carson Architects
and submitted an outline
planning application (OPA) for the
comprehensive development of the
estate. The new neighbourhood will
be mixed tenure and accommodate
up to 925 units. The demolition,
rehousing and construction period
is anticipated to span 12-15 years.
Residents of the Colville Estate
had spent more than 10 years
on previous attempted schemes
which had stalled at ballot and
funding stages. Karakusevic
Carson Architects was required
to develop a workable rehousing
programme and deliver the first
phase of homes to unlock the
replacement home process.
The Colville Estate has one of the
strongest neighbourhood spirits
the practice has encountered, and

Above Model showing Phase 2

and 3 of the sites wider masterplan
Right Phase 1 under construction and
proposals for the neighbourhood zone
in Phase 2

its community identity is strong

and thriving. The masterplanning
strategy has been characterised
by engaging and harnessing
this community spirit, working
closely with the proactive resident
steering group to develop a more
dynamic and strategically viable
scheme with grassroots support.
Increased density and financial
viability was achieved through
the third phase: a pair of taller
buildings facing the park, with
outline planning granting a
20-storey and a 16-storey tall
building providing up to 200 homes
for market sale/shared ownership.
This created cross subsidy for the
replacement of social housing to
be located in the lower rise streets
and courtyard buildings elsewhere.
The scheme delivers a viable
mixed-tenure, mixed-use,
masterplan and creates a publicrealm strategy locked into the
wider neighbourhood.

Credits
Design Team Muf Art + Architecture,
Eurban,Tibbalds, and Peter Brett
Associates
Client The London Borough of Hackney
Borough The London Borough of
Hackney
Awards Part of our winning submissions
for Housing Architect of theYear Awards
2011-2012 and 2013-2014,
CivicTrust Award 2012, and
Housing Design Award 2012
Shortlisted RIBA Award 2012
Units and Density 41 homes, 195 dph,
690 hrh
Tenure 100 per cent social rent
Status phase 1 completed 2012

39

Colville Estate

2 Academy Street, Enfield, London, UK,

by Karakusevic Carson Architects and
Maccreanor Lavington Architects
The Academy Street project in the London
Borough of Enfield comprises 38 new social
and affordable homes with the intention
of rehousing some residents from the
neighbouring Alma Estate.
Working in collaboration with Maccreanor
Lavington Architects, Karakusevic Carson
Architects proposed high-quality housing
arranged in two terraces, creating a new
residential street and public route. This
scheme successfully addresses the boundary
conditions, creating a clearly defined public
realm with improved natural surveillance
generated by more front doors and habitable
rooms overlooking the streetscape.
The units are a mix of one, two, three and
four bed dwellings with ample amenity space
and 28 parking spaces.The scheme also
provides four wheelchair-adaptable units
across the unit mix.
The scale of the street reflects the
surrounding urban grain of neighbouring
residential streets such as Nelson Road and
Sutherland Road, creating a more intimate
residential environment. The shared surfaces
create a pedestrian-orientated street, which
will benefit from low trafficlevels.
The western terrace is largely two-storey
houses with a three-storey portion to the
north providing a mix of family houses,
maisonettes and apartments. These
properties are provided with rear gardens,
which are at least 11m deep, backing on
to Falcon Crescent. The eastern terrace is
largely comprised of three-storey courtyard
houses with a small three-storey apartment
building to the south. These house typologies
have been developed specifically to minimise
overlooking to the nearby school playground.
Principally, the houses are orientated
west to the street and south to a sheltered
first-floor terrace, creating a layout with no
habitable rooms overlooking the school. The
notched nature of this eastern terrace not
only creates an interesting street profile but
allows additional daylight into the street and
creates an animated elevation to the school.

Above left Interior of Phase 1 (Bridport House) showing cross laminated

timber construction and right photo of completed scheme

Ground floor site plan of Phase 1

Buildings: Boroughs

0 1m

Axonometric of MaisonetteTypology from Phase 2

Credits
Start on site 2012
Completion 2014
Client The London Borough of Enfield
Borough The London Borough of Enfield
Units and density 38 residential units, new build
of3650m2, 48dph /172hrh
Tenure 50 per cent social and 50 per
centintermediate
Status Detailed planning permission granted
June2013

41

40

Colville Estate

South Kilburn Estate

Spanning a 2.1ha site in London,

three existing isolated estates
in South Kilburn were set to be
replaced with 144 new dwellings as
part of a regenerative masterplan
by Alison Brooks Architects and
Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands.
The 15-year regeneration
strategy of the South Kilburn
Partnership, of which Brent
Council is a key partner, will see the
phased development of the area
until 2025.The primary objective
of the programme is to deliver
better homes, in a safer and more
sustainable environment, for the
existing and future residents of
South Kilburn, and address the
inequalities that exist between the
estate and the surrounding areas.
Situated at the gateway to
the historic quarter identified in
the overarching masterplan, the
central approach to the scheme is
a reinstatement of the urban street
pattern that characterised the area
before post-war development the
traditional model of back-to-back
villas fronting the main roads, with
corresponding mews houses and a
restored 19th-century route, Alpha
Mews (Mews Lane). Running the

length of the block and linking the

new developments, the spine route
is made up of shared surfaces,
play areas, gardens and clearly
defined public and private spaces
overlooked by balconies and roof
gardens.
Alison Brooks Architects 43-unit
scheme for Ely Court is a collection
of three building typologies of up
to four storeys: apartment terrace,
flatiron building and mews houses
knitted between existing 11-storey
apartment blocks. Street frontages
are animated with front porches,
while recessed balconies and
roof gardens create a layering of
landscape and highly articulated,
rhythmic facades.
A mews street of two- and threebedroom houses introduces a finer
grain of development within the
scheme, integral to which is the
definition and reinforcement of the
existing estates green spaces as
communal gardens and protected
play areas.

43

42

3 South Kilburn Estate, South

Kilburn, London, UK, by Alison
Brooks Architects and Lifschutz
Davidson Sandilands

Credits
Start on site November 2014
Completion November 2016
Units 100 (ABA) / 129 (LDS)
Form of contract or procurementroute
Design and Build
Estimated construction cost
44 million approx
Client London Borough of Brent

0

5m

Ground & first floor plan

0 1m

Massing strategy

Far left Completed interior

Above left Existing scheme
Left Render of proposed development

Buildings: Boroughs

The Bacton Low-Rise Estate

A passionate tenants and

residents association with
a focused local authority
regeneration team created a
dynamic partnership committed to
delivering transformation and highquality new homes in a five-to-sixyear phased delivery programme.
To reconnect the neighbourhood
and surrounding area, a new
pedestrianised street opens up
views to the Grade I-listed church
and provides the wider community
with a public space.
Residents wanted mainly
low-rise housing and a network of
new streets, so medium-density
family homes of between three and
five storeys were combined with
apartments and taller accents on
key streets and corners. Communal
and private entrances at street
level encourage activity within the
public realm, and a clear hierarchy
of routes is achieved through the
buildings scale. Rooftop amenity
space, as well as recessed and
outboard balconies, ensure open
amenity at every level, while
landscaped gardens and play
spaces are shared by all residents.
Public, semi-private and private
spaces are balanced, fostering
interaction while offering privacy
and security.
To the north of the site lies a highspeed rail line, so acoustics and
environmental health issues are a
major constraint on the first-phase
decant site. The solid timber frame
helps to minimise disturbance from
the trains.
This contextual and modern
expression of urban family
life is near to cost neutral; the
programme of medium-density
housing will give enough crosssubsidy, market-sale properties to
help deliver the rented and shared
ownership housing at minimum
cost to the council.

Buildings: Boroughs

45

44

The Bacton Low Rise Estate,

Camden, London, UK by
Karakusevic Carson Architects

Top Existing Bacton Low-rise Estate

Centre Site under construction
Above Proposed development
Credits
Design Team Camlins (landscape and
public realm), and Quod (planning
consultant)
Client The London Borough of Camden
Borough The London Borough
ofCamden
Awards Part of winning Karakusevic
Carson Architects submission for
Housing Architect of theYear Award
2013, Shortlisted for a Housing Design
Award 2014, Shortlisted for New
London Architecture Award 2014
Units & Density 293 homes
153 dwellings per ha
GIA 32,000m
Tenure 40 per cent affordable (social
rent), 60 per cent private sale
Status Detailed consent granted 2013
Phase 1 on site

The Bacton Low-Rise Estate

46

Won in an RIBA competition, this high-density

scheme for 105 units in Norwich is on track
to be the largest Passivhaus scheme in the
UK. The city council initially expected to
partner with housing associations. However,
with changes to funding mechanisms and
the possibility of borrowing money against
receipts, it has taken the initiative to carry
out the development itself. It appointed
local company NPS as project manager,
with Mikhail Riches as project lead and
contractadministrator.
Architecturally, Mikhail Riches scheme
involves creating a mix of one, two, three and
four bedroom houses and flats designed with
no common parts, so every dwelling has its
own front door on to the street.
This new series of terraced streets,
introduced into an area dominated by
20th-century blocks of flats, opens up this area
of Norwich and establishes new pedestrian
and cycle routes and green links into a
previously amorphous estate. Existing green
links will be reinforced with a landscape
scheme, which extends beyond the site
boundaries to include local roads and a park.
Street widths are intentionally narrow at 14m,
emulating the 19th-century model.
Parking is on street where a 20mph speed
limit will be applied.This is a low carbon
scheme where all houses and flats face
south, and the design seeks to provide sunny,
light-filled homes with very low fuel bills of
approximately 150 per year.The majority of
the properties will be socially rented.

Typical plans

Top Sketch section through

apartment building
Left Model showing new
neighbourhood street linking
to St Marks Church

Buildings: Boroughs

0

1m

Credits
Client Norwich City Council
Location Norwich City Centre
Start on site Late 2015
CompletionTBC
Units 105
Gross internal floor Area 8,000 m2
Form of contract Traditional JCT contract with bills
of quantity
Construction cost 13 million

47

3 Goldsmith Street, Norwich, UK,

by Mikhail Riches

Voices

This image
Bridport house by
KarakusevicCarson
Architects

50

Hackney Council, Estate Regeneration Team

At Hackney, we are making use of our land to build
more than 2,760 new council homes for social renting
and shared ownership along with those for private
sale to pay for it all.
Our estate regeneration team is leading on the
delivery of this building programme at all stages, from
decisions on which estates and sites to redevelop
through to setting the briefs for those sites, selecting
architects, managing the design process and procuring
contractors or developer partners.The 18-site
programme adopts a portfolio approach, rather than
focusing on individual sites, and nearly 300 homes have
been built so far, including 201 for social rent.
The team is committed to good design and aims to
build exemplary housing, public spaces and streets
that will endure, be considered a success, and be a
pleasure to live in.This commitment runs through all
ofthe processes that are involved.
Ambitious, design-led briefs are developed for each
project and talented design teams selected through
design competitions. Particular attention is paid to
elements often neglected in housing developments,
such as the design of communal entrance lobbies,

Consultation process

Render of Colville Estate Phase 2

defensible space, and storage and utility areas.

Public realm is prioritised in the design process;
the transformation of streets, squares and shared
gardens is recognised as key to the success of estate
regeneration projects. Every scheme is developed to a
level of detail to ensure the design intent is preserved
throughout the constructionphases.
With the Colville Estate in Hoxton we worked
with Karakusevic Carson Architects to design a
series of streets that seamlessly connect with the
surroundings.The materials palette has been selected
to be similar to those found on a conventional London
street. Informal play areas, community gardens and
seating areas have been integrated into new streets
to encourage a sociable and diverse street life. The
project is characterised by a highly collaborative way
of working with residents and extensive input from the
resident steering group.
With the Kings Crescent Estate in Stoke Newington,
the regeneration approach has been to treat the
estate as part of the city. Existing buildings dating
from the 1960s and 1970s are being retained, providing
continuity and transition. Karakusevic Carson
Architects and Henley Halebrown Rorrison are leading
the refurbishment of these buildings, based on a
sympathetic understanding of their structure, form and
function.The proposals include converting groundfloor garages in existing blocks into new homes.
Although technically challenging, the transformative
impact on the estate in terms of making it a
welcoming, safe and lively place will be considerable.
As well as large-scale regeneration projects, we are
also developing smaller plots. At Aikin Court, which is
a corner site in a terraced street in Stoke Newington,
we are working with StephenTaylor Architects to
design seven new homes five will be larger family
houses for social renting and two will be for private
sale to help pay for the works. Particular attention
has been given to how the new houses sit within
the terraced street, the design of front gardens and
thresholds, and the internal configuration of family
living areas.

Sarah Robbins, residents association,

Bacton Low-Rise Estate
About 15 years ago they wanted to knock down the
Bacton Low-Rise estate.We (residents) opposed
this as we would have been unable to stay within the
local area they were going to ask us to move out of
central London completely. So instead, we underwent
a refurbishment programme.
Then, around five years ago, the local authority
put forward a proposal for demolition and new build
meaning we could stay in the local area and move
just across the road. Because the refurbishment
programme hadnt gone according to plan the first time
around, we decided that if this was going to happen, we
wanted to be heavily involved.We wanted to be part of
the design process and then invited to all the meetings
about the project.
Our main concern was to get a decent home.
At the moment we have high fuel bills because the
homes have no insulation.The way we live creates
ongoing health problems in family units because of
condensation, severe damp and mould.
We held exhibitions and drop-in sessions, together
with numerous fun days for estate residents and the
wider community, to help us get through to the planning
stage.We worked a lot with Karakusevic Carson

Existing Bacton Low-rise Estate

Architects, going through the design stages, and were

heavily involved in selecting the materials that would
be used externally and internally on the project. It has
been a bit of a learning curve.
I would recommend to other people that, if they want
to stay local and they want to have a high-quality home,
then they must get involved in the process as much as
possible. If we had not done this, we would have ended
up with nothing like the design we have now; we would
have all ended up in a tower block. Instead, we now
have a low-rise block that is only six or seven storeys
maximum but contains lots of family homes.
Following the build, there has now been some
Section 106 funding and we have new play areas for
the community in the open spaces.We also have a
local city farm that needed some money and there
was a chance that it might be closed, but a lot of people
wanted to keep it in the area, so there have been other
benefits as well. Just because you are a council tenant,
it does not mean you cannot have a say.

Consultation at Bacton

Materials palette

51

Voices

52

Strange days Owen Hatherley

The mid-1970s saw the end of an era in housing that
is, the end of the notion that housing was best provided
by the state, usually in local form via municipal
governments, and that it was best constructed at great
speed with industrial methods if need be in order
to pull as many people as possible out of 19th-century
slums (in western/central Europe) or age-old rural
poverty (in eastern/southern Europe).
By around 1975 the job was mostly done.
The horrors of what had gone before had become
distant in the mind, and the criticisms many of which
now sound rather hysterical didnt have to take much
account of logic, because most importantly of all, this
housing was associated with a political moment that
had passed: the post-war consensus.Whether social
socialist or Christian democratic, Gaullist or real
socialist, this tended to have similar builtresults.
Different approaches were taken to its replacement
interesting outliers such as self-build in south
London or critical reconstruction in west Berlin
were gradually supplanted by a new dominance of
private and speculative housing, with an offsetting
of social housing.This was usually charitable rather
than municipal, in a new, 30-40-year consensus.The
results could be relatively controlled, as in Sweden or

Germany, or extremely careless, as in Britain, Ireland

and Poland. All, however, were part of the same basic
family. Similarly, by around 2008, this all seemed to
be over; discredited by a massive property crash,
a financial crisis and an aesthetic revulsion at the
increasingly vainglorious, chaotic results. Apart from
a handful of London boroughs who have attempted to
build housing within the strict limits theyve been set,
by and large a clear alternative to the housing of the
boom era has not emerged.
Neo-liberal housing in Europe has not been
homogenous. Given that so much of its appeal was
based on criticising social democratic housing as
being repetitive and interchangeable, it simply had
to be differentiated, especially as, unlike statesponsored housing, it had to be sold on an open
market.The extent of this was so closely tied to each
countrys interpretation of the new consensus that it
almost seemed to be illustrating an especially vulgar
Marxistthesis.
London, Manchester, Dublin,Warsaw, Moscow et
al, whether in exurban non-plan or inner-city urban
renaissance mode, favoured a deregulated market
and a deregulated architecture, without much in the
way of architectural quality control, overall planning
or infrastructure.The results from Dublin Docklands
to Salford Quays to Stratford are messy, straggling,
cheaply made, and usually if not exclusively in a
bumptious architectural language of brightly coloured
Trespa, barcode facades and irregular silhouettes.
Cities such as Stockholm, Hamburg and Amsterdam
no longer built public social housing en masse, but
they did maintain planning, some sort of rent control
and a sense of architectural order. It might have been
basically the same thing luxury housing on former
industrial sites, usually on reclaimed, ex-working
riversides, with dribs and drabs of selective social
housing but as architecture or urban morphology,
they can feel strikingly different, ordered, elegant,
comfortable, sometimes even arcadian. As a result,
the most impressive of 21st-century European
housing schemes, such as Hammarby Sjstad (1) and
HafenCity, retained the look of social democracy for

the purpose of neo-liberalism. By contrast, equivalents

at Cardiff Bay or Stratford High Street were a nailsdown-blackboard scree of aesthetic individualism and
planning ineptitude.
That contrast must have struck visitors from the
more outright neo-liberal countries. How could a visitor
from London not fail to be embarrassed when given the
guided tour around the strikingly pretty landscaping,
visual coherence, social facilities and transport
infrastructure in Hammarby? How could the traveller
from Liverpool not guiltily recall what had been done
on either side of the Pier Head when looking at what
Hamburg had done with the disused dockland in front
of its rather Liverpudlian towering brick warehouses?
Accordingly, something is happening to housing
in the UK, or at least to the way it looks. It has shed
itsTrespa and terracotta covering like a garish 1990s
dayglo jacket, and cast off its wavy roofs as last years
kitsch. Design for London guidelines enforce a palette
of stock brick across the city, with increasingly regular
fenestration, flat roofs and planar, straightened-out
plans and facades. Other cities are following suit.
Obviously, this too is a matter of cladding, and this too
is a matter of tiny flats that are let out to investors as
part of the endlessly remunerative pyramid scheme
that is the London property market. But the result is
that Londons housing now looks ever more social
democratic: calm, sensible and in keeping with the
housing that dominates the real London stockbrick terraces and modular, often brick-infill, housing
estates. In fact, given that the former were privatised
or gentrified in the 1980s and this is happening to the
latter now, all of these typologies are rapidly melding
into one.
Some hope has been placed in the promise of local
councils setting up shell companies in order to build
housing again. Among them is the London Borough of
Southwark, promising more than 10,000 new council
homes over the next three decades. Unlike similar
projects Birminghams recent, small-scale council
housing programme, for instance, where simple
designs by local architects were crushed by the by
contractors shoddy implementation the architecture

promises to be of a high quality.The pilot project is a

small estate by architect Panter Hudspith, another
set of sober, neat, regular and brick-clad Modernist
buildings, a highly unusual 80 per cent of which are
let at a social rent. However, it is designed mostly to
rehouse people decanted from other estates in the
borough, and even if it builds its seemingly ambitious
full programme, Southwark will only barely replace
the huge quantity of perfectly decent, structurally
sound council homes it has demolished or sold
to developers, meaning theyre essentially running
to stand still, letting developers build in one site to
extract the section 106 agreements needed to build
council housing on another.
In the absence of any real structural change, the
reaction to the collapse of an entire economy and
ideology the belief that the market knew best, that
finance capital could do anything, that entrepeneurs
were superhuman, that private was always better than
public has been entirely cosmetic. Although critiques
are usually of towers of glass with iconic shapes, when
theyre actually built, expect the clusters of residential
towers in controversial London areas such as Mount
Pleasant or Nine Elms to have flat roofs and be clad
in the politest stock-brick panels, as if theyre actually
badly planned escapees from Amsterdam South or
Borneo-Sporenburg.
Accordingly, the moment were in is a strange one.
Something has changed. People now talk about the
bankruptcy of iconic architectural masterpieces
constructed by indentured labourers, of skylines of
bumptious competing towers and the privatisation
of the city. But many of the things that protesters
demand to be in keeping, to use local materials, to
respect the local heritage, to refurbish great historic
buildings are things that developers can do, if they
can be bothered. In this, Kings Cross is the exemplar.
What they cant do is build a social city, solve a housing
crisis, make cities less unequal. Other questions need
to be asked of housing.Who owns it?Who is it for?
Whobenefits?

53

Viewpoint

Interview

54

Ellis Woodman Many European cities are currently

grappling with the technical and social failings of
their post-war building stock but, in London, those
challenges are complicated by our very considerable
housing shortage.Is it not a struggle to maintain a
sensitivity to the qualities of existing buildings and the
communities that live in them when there is so great an
onus on delivering more homes?
Paul Karakusevic They dont have to be competing
demands.We have worked on a number of estates
where the building fabric has failed or where there
are only certain functionality issues.The feedback we
get from residents is that they generally want to be
rehoused in and around their existing neighbourhood,
but in reconfigured buildings or replacement homes
that meet modern standards and expectations.
Most local authorities and residents groups fully
understand the issues of cross-subsidy and know
you have to re-masterplan and increase density to
facilitate new socially rented accommodation. All
the resident groups we have worked with so far have
been fully supportive of some sort of intervention,
whether wholesale regeneration or infill within the
underutilised parts of their estate.

EW Does the need for density and cross-subsidy

tend to favour wholesale intervention rather than
refurbishment strategies?
PK Not necessarily.On a lot of projects we are
refurbishing: adding insulation, new windows, winter
gardens, new access and security arrangements. And
then we look at wasted or underutilised land to create
new homes, which, in turn, helps cross-subsidise
refurbishment work or the construction of new socially
rented homes in and around the estate.We always
look at re-use opportunities first and then investigate
through the masterplan where the opportunities lie for
easy-win new-build projects for social, intermediate
and market housing.
EW Housing has a unique capacity to define the form
and character of the city. When you do rebuild, are you
finding opportunities to significantly restructure sites?
PK On projects like Kings Crescent (see p14) and
the Nightingale Estate where tower blocks were
pulled down in the 1990s and early 2000s, there are
very large parcels of land where you can create new
streets and whole new districts. On others, we may
just be demolishing a small building, which sits within
a much bigger land holding a surgical architectural
intervention rather than a major exercise in city
changing.We generally try and work with the existing
context and add new buildings that are responsive or
add to the character.
EW At the Colville Estate (see p38), you are
introducing taller buildings.How did the community
respond to thatproposal?
he residents had been speaking to the council
PK T
about regeneration for about 15years before we
were appointed.They had three failed regeneration
attempts, the final one being unravelled by the
beginning of the financial crisis of 2008.We were
appointed shortly afterwards to develop a new

Colville Phase 3 consultation

masterplan that the residents could support and

would be deliverable over 15-20 years.The residents
established a very strong residents charter with
Hackney Councils support, which set out ground
rules and non-negotiable points namely, that a lot of
residents didnt want to be rehoused in tall buildings,
but wanted low-to-medium rise homes ranging from
four to six storeys.
A scheme of average height and density would
only generate about 600 homes, however, which would
have left many tens of millions of pounds worth of
funding shortfall and, in 2009, that was not going to be
subsidised by central government.So we had to look
at increasing the density on one small part of the site
about 5per cent of the overall land to create enough
cross-subsidy to build all of the low and medium-rise
socially rented homes that were on the programme.
We suggested that the point on the south-western
corner facing the park was a natural place for a series
of bigger buildings, and so, after meetings and design
workshops with the residents association, they were
incorporated into the masterplan and designated for
shared ownership and market sale.
Over 90per cent of the residents were fully
supportive of the tall buildings because of the
opportunities it gave for the wider estate to be built
at a finer grain.Without the tall buildings, the whole
estate would have been eight and nine storeys high
something that was not going to be supported by the
existing residents.
EW Do you think Londons housing needs can be
accommodated solely through intensification?

here is still a huge amount of space in London,

PK T
even within the city fringe.We are working in Hackney,
Camden, Enfield, Newham, Lewisham, Lambeth and
Southwark, and there is a lot of underutilised space in
those boroughs that can be intensified and improved.
The councils are financially constrained and, as a
result, there has to be some sort of cross-subsidy
element to a lot of these projects, be that through

market sale or council-led build to rent.

The local authorities own so much land
approximately 30per cent of the capital in the city fringe
and if that is carefully planned over the next 20 or
30years I think there are lots of opportunities to create
the homes that everyone in London needs.
he past decade has seen a new generation of
EW T
design-led British practices focus on housing in a
way that hasnt happened since the 1970s. At least
in London we do seem to be experiencing a revival
ofexpectations and skills.Are you optimistic about the
present situation?
here has been an exciting revival of interest
PK T
among architects in housing after 40years of neglect.
Five years ago we also saw a new era of local authority
design officers coming through who were interested
in quality and appalled by the low ambition of housing
in the 80s and 90s.Everybody could see that the kind
of recent development you encounter in places like
Hackney Road is just an embarrassment to London:
cheap, shoddy construction, delivered through Design
and Build and forming one of the key routes into
thecity.
Many of the key London boroughs has now
established its own design review panel with highcalibre members and advisers.The benefits wont be
seen for a long time because these projects take so
long to be realised, but I think in the next 10-15years we
will see that legacy of better projects coming through.
Borough teams we are working with see design as the
absolute key to unlocking the new housing they are
planning because, without good design and resident
support, nothing moves forward.
A new era of practices combined with ambitious
local authority client groups will have a major
transformative effect on Londons housing. It is really
exciting that councils are participating in housing
design and delivery again with a focus on building
longevity and quality.

55

Paul Karakusevic Interviewed by Ellis Woodman

1800

1830

1840

1850

1860

1870

1880

1890

Era of philanthropy
The pressure for decent housing
increased from overcrowding
in the large cities during the
Industrial Revolution in the 18th
and 19th century, and many social
commentators, such as Octavia Hill,
reported on the squalor, sickness
and perceived immorality that arose.
Some philanthropists had begun to
provide housing in tenement blocks,
while some factory owners such as
Saltaire (1853), Bournville (1879), Port
Sunlight, Stewartby, and Silver End
as late as 1926 built entire villages
for their workers

Social Housing Timeline

1910

1930

1914 1918
First World War

1940

1950

1960

1970

1939 1945
Second World War

1951
Festival of Britain
Showcased the new Lansbury
Estate in Poplar, East London. Live
Architecture Exhibition

1968
Ronan Point
The problems associated with
contractor-led panelised systems
were brought into sharp focus after
the partial collapse of Ronan Point,
a tower block in Newham, East
London, after a gas explosion

1979
The Conservative Party wins
the General Election, which is
instrumental in the Right to Buy
scheme being implemented

1955
RIBA Symposium on High Flats
Forewarned of problems with
low-income families living in highrise housing

1980

1990
1997
The Labour Party wins the
GeneralElection

2000

2010

2007 2010
Financial crisis reduces
housebuilding and with less funding
from central government ambitious
council housebuilding programmes
are thwarted

2010
The Conservative Party form a
coalition government with the
Liberal Democrats

2020

2012 Olympic Games in London

AthletesVillage is transformed into
EastVillage, providing more than
3,000 new homes.The Legacy will
create a further 7,000 over the next
10-15 years

Projects

Victorian Slums

1800s The Rookery

1851 Barrack Block

1894-1900 Boundary Street Estate

1911 Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust

1924 Downham Estate

1938 Kensal House

1952 Le Corbusiers Marseille UnitdHabitation

1961 Park Hill Estate

1971 Thamesmead Estate

1980 Right to Buy

2013 Park Hill Phase 1

Events and Policy

1800s
Rookery
18th and 19th centuries
Slum housing composed of a
dense mat of one- or two-room
deep dwellings, penetrated by
narrowalleys

1836
Sketches by BozIllustrative
of Every-day Life and Everyday People A collection of
short pieces published by Charles
Dickens with illustrations
by GeorgeCruikshank

1843
TJ Maslen, Suggestions for the
Improvement of our Towns and
Houses ....I strongly recommend,
for good of all classes, that courts
and alleys be abolished, and let men
live in wide streets, and act openly
and honestly in sight of all.
1848
The Public Health Act
The act aimed to improve the
sanitary condition of towns and
populous places in England and
Wales by placing the supply
of water, sewerage, drainage,
cleansing and paving under a single
local body

1851
The Great Exhibition
Exhibited the influential model
dwelling for four families that
PrinceAlbert had commissioned
from the architect Henry Roberts
1851
Henry Mayhew, London Labour
and the London Poor
houses small and without
foundations, subdivided and
often around unpaved courts. An
almost total lack of drainage and
sewerage was made worse by the
ponds formed by the excavation
of brickearth. Pigs and cows in
backyardsslaughter houses,
dustheaps, and lakes of putrefying
night soil added to the filth.

1850s
The Barrack Block was seen as
a solution to slum clearances
modelled on Henry Roberts Empire
Exhibition model dwelling
1862
Peabody Trust
Established by London-based
American banker GeorgePeabody

1875
The Artisans and Labourers
Dwellings Improvement Act
Allowed local councils to buy up
areas of slum dwelling in order to
clear it and then rebuild

1885
The Housing of the Working
Classes Act gave local authorities
the power to undertake rehousing
schemes. In 1890 the London County
Council set about demolishing the
Old Nichol Rookery and replacing it
with the Boundary Estate

1890
The Working Classes Dwellings
Act placed a new responsibility
to house displaced residents,
which led to the building of new
philanthropic housing such as
Blackwall Buildings inWhitechapel,
East London, and Great Eastern
Buildings, Hackney, East London
1896
Arthur Morrison, A Child ofthe
Jago Wretched houses with
broken windows patched with
rags and paper: every room let out
to a different family, and in many
instances to two or even three ...
filth everywhere a gutter before
the houses and a drain behind
clothes drying and slops emptying,
from the windows.men and
women, in every variety of scanty
and dirty apparel, lounging, scolding,
drinking, smoking, squabbling,
fighting, and swearing

1917
The Tudor Walters Report on
the quality of housing provided for
colliery employees is published.
Based on the design principles of
the garden suburb movement, it
provided a standard of quality in
the construction of homes for the
working classes. It recommended
that every house should contain a
living room, parlour, scullery and at
least three bedrooms, a bathroom
and a larder

1930
The Greenwood Housing Act
required councils to prepare slum
clearance plans
1937
London City Councils London
Housing manual is published

1944
The Dudley Report promoted
mixed developments and higher
densities than previously
19431944
The Abercrombie Plan
Governed the planning and
rebuilding of London in the
post-war era.The document put
emphasis on council-led housing
and new infrastructure

1956
The Housing Subsidy Act
offered local authorities a greater
subsidy, the higher they were
prepared tobuild
1946
The New Towns Act and 1947
Town and Country Planning Act
shaped council house provision.
Houses were typically semidetached or in small terraces. A
three-bedroom, semi-detached
council house was typically built on
a square grid (6.4m x 6.4m), with a
maximum density of no more than 30
houses per hectare. New towns and
many existing towns had countless
estates built to this basic model

1967
Parker Morris Standards:
Set out in the Ministry of Housings
Design Bulletin 6 - Space in the Home,
these space standards became
mandatory for all housing built in
new towns, and were extended to all
council housing in 1969
1961
Homes for Today and
Tomorrow report The Parker
Morris Committee drew up
an influential report on public
housing in the UK, which made
recommendations for improving
the quality of social housing,
particularly regarding size
standards

1973
The Essex Design Guide for
Residential Areas
Based on visual criteria and a
reaction to the qualitative standards
of the 1960s, this guide advocated
neo-vernacular styles that gained
great popularity in the marketplace
and with planners.This caused the
Essex neo-vernacular to spread

2000
Planning Policy Guidance 3:
Housing
Brownfield site preference led to a
proliferation of one- and two-bed
properties in city centres instead of
larger family units

2012 onwards
Local authority Regeneration and
Housing teams start to look at major
estate renewal programmes across
London to help create better homes
for tenants and ease the citys
housing shortage

2000
EcoHomes
Established to improve
environmental standards in new
housing

20102014
After several years of under-supply,
Londons housing shortage is
exacerbated

1980
The Local Government,
Planning and Land Act abolishes
the Parker Morris Standards.
Developers respond with a new
product the starter home

2006
Local authorities are empowered
to build council homes again and
encouraged to establish local
housing companies to deliver a
range of tenures on council-owned
sites

1989
Secured by Design
Police initiative is established to
improve safety in new housing
projects

1898
To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to
Real ReformEbenezer Howards
manifesto later republished as
Garden Cities of To-morrow

Statistics

1980
Right to Buy
A central policy in the Conservative
manifesto was to transform Britain
into a home-owning democracy.
The Housing Act of 1980 duly gave
council tenants the right to buy their
homes. Over the following three
years, 500,000 council homes passed
over to private ownership. Further
local authorities were barred from
building new homes with proceeds
from sales

1920 to 1930
5million new homes were built
between 1920 and 1930, representing
25per cent of the total housing
stock. A semi-detached house could
be bought for 500 about twice the
annual salary of a middle-ranking
civil servant

1945
Average construction cost of
a post-war prefabricated two-bed
house is 1300

1979
40per cent of the population lives in
council properties

19812006
The number of owner-occupied
dwellings in the UK increases by
49per cent to reach 18.5million

20142015
A series of Housing Zones are
planned for London to deliver more
than 30,000 homes in the next 15years

2006
Code for Sustainable Homes is
introduced with the aim of improving
environmental standards and
reducing CO emissions, by giving
targets for each new housing project

2008
The Royal Institution of Chartered
Surveyors estimates that only 66,220
new homes have been built in 2008

2014
118,760 homes are completed,
far below the 250,000 needed to
tackle the housing crisis in the
UK. Of these, 30,000 were defined
as affordable. Fewer than 80,000
were completed in London in the
same year

2029
It is predicted that the number of
one-person households will have
risen from 6.5million to just under
10.5million

2030

Silchester, Haworth Tompkins

HOUSING TRANSFORMATION AND DENSIFICATION

Academy Street, Karakusevic Carson Architects

ST NAZAIRE
LA CHESNAIE
La Chesnaie,
Lacaton
& Vassal

0,325

tanchit sur bac acier

0,1

1,04

pente
couvertine (lot 05)

rejet d'eau (lot 17)

imposte :
bardage polycarb. opaque
doublage isolant
ossature support de bardage et
appui de menuiserie
charpente mtallique
+ peinture intumescente sf 1h
faux-plafond suspendu
+ isolation

rejet d'eau

rails rideaux thermiques

+ rail pour voilage
charge des locataires
volets coulissants
en polycarbonate
3,37

menuiserie aluminium

rideau d'ombrage

2,4

rideau thermique

intrieur

jardin d'hiver

balcon

garde corps vitr

rsine
plancher collaborant prfabriqu
type cofradal 200

profil + isolant
support menuis alu

rsine impermable

sous face acier galvanis prlaqu

sous face "brute" du cofradal

sous face acier galvanis prlaqu

sous face "brute" du cofradal

balcony collaborant prfabriqu

type cofradal 200

poutre acier
faux-plafond suspendu

menuiserie aluminium

poteau mtal.
+ peinture intumescente sf 1h

1,08
0,1

0,175

0,25

2,4

2,46

2,67

Tongeren, S333

0,83

1,25

SECTION ON THE FACADE OF NEW BUILDING WITH WINTER GARDEN

0

5m

0

1m

0,2

0,5

1m

0250mm