Wayland Close

This proposal for the regeneration of an existing housing estate carefully inserts a series of villas into an area of mature woodland, achieving surprisingly high density whilst sparing the large majority of existing trees.

We developed a unique layout for the new buildings which could be easily replicated across the site to provide over 200 homes of differing sizes and tenures. These ‘Y’-shaped blocks provided up to five homes per residential core, with an efficient central core minimising unnecessary circulation space.

The careful placement of these villas, each with varying heights to provide visual interest and to respond to the topography of the site and views from the surrounding countryside, created a series of outdoor “rooms” within the forest and allowed a clear distinction between roadway and pedestrian routes.

Each new villa replaces an existing building – the current estate having been decanted after the discovery of asbestos ahead of a proposed refurbishment project to enlarge the overwhelming number of bedsits with larger flats.

In this was we were able to reuse existing site infrastructure, including roadways, drainage and services, while also retaining existing trees.

Client organisation: London and Quadrant Housing Trust

Location: Bracknell, Berkshire