New homes project group: meeting 1

We met on Wednesday 17th April at the Community Centre.

The first part of the meeting was run by Neal Purvis, who is the independent chair from Open Communities. He went through the process of building new council homes, which starts with consultation with residents before going to a planning application. There are many, detailed requirements for good design, for example:

• Minimum space per dwelling

• Building height must fir existing buildings

• Preserving trees and green space

• Design considers children, elderly and disabled people

• Communal space for play

• Adequate daylight - must have multiple windows and not all north facing

• The building's external appearance is tenure blind

• Avoid overlooking and overshadowing existing buildings

• Plan for impact on local transport

In the second part of the meeting, architect Will Durston presented three initial layouts:

1. Street edge

2. Street edge and mews

3. Linear park

Will Durston presents the architect's initial ideas

Street edge

Street edge and mews

Linear park

For each design, the new community centre is located away from its current location, so that the new one can be built before the old one is demolished. Each design includes space for the multi use game area, but there is not yet a specific place for the children's play area. This would go in the green area.

You can see more detail of each design

here

.

A view of each design over the houses on Buller Close. Top: linear park. Bottom left: street edge and mews. Bottom right: street edge.

View past Bunbury House of the mews (top) the linear park (bottom left) and the street edge layout (bottom right).