Estate Housing

A considerable number of clients have appointed the practice to prepare housing layouts. In most cases, the sites are located within an existing settlement and whilst a client may have a specific brief in terms of the number and type of dwellings to be built guidance is often required ensure that the new homes pay proper respect to any noteworthy features on the site and merge seamlessly with their surroundings.

The practice has also gained a reputation for the effective use of land utilising its skills for maximising the amount of development that can be obtained on a site having regard to local planning authority policies and standards.


Projects

Cook's Shipyard, Wivenhoe
Aikens Village, Stepaside
Dublin Road, Kilminchy
Weald Road, Brentwood
The development involved the demolition of existing buildings at a former Youth Treatment Centre and the construction of 120 dwellings and associated facilities. The client for the project was Persimmon Homes Limited.

The site had an area of 6.8ha. and included playing fields, woodland, rough grassland and scrub. It was located on the western outskirts of the town. Part of the site was located in the Metropolitan Green Belt.

The extent of the application site, the area to be developed with housing and the boundary of the Green Belt were identical to those agreed in the approved Outline application and, therefore, constituted basic parameters for the development. An additional constraint was to retain the trees the majority of which were covered by Tree Preservation Orders. The practice worked with Landscape Architects and Arboriculturalists who produced a Woodland Management Compartment Plan and Arboricultural Method Statement.

Major features of the development comprised:-
•   safeguarding a double row of horse chestnut trees which formed the
    centre-piece of the development and provided a strong sense of place and
    identity.
•   the creation of a layout in which all the dwellings faced the Green Belt to
    provide an attractive, well-defined and clean edge to the settlement.That
    part of the site lying within the Green Belt was devoted to public open
    space and, because of the orientation of the dwellings, recreation and
    play activities in the area will be supervised by the occupants of the
    adjoining properties.

A high quality living environment was produced which respected the wooded nature of the site and the edge of Green Belt location.

Harpers Lane, Portlaoise
The Crescent, Portmarnock
Knock Rushen, Castletown
Cambridge Close, Stock
Great Berry, Laindon