Cane Hill Commended in the Housing Design Awards

We are delighted to have been commended in the Housing Design Awards for our 667 home development, Cane Hill.

Cane Hill is a distinctive residential neighbourhood, fitting in with the special character of its surroundings making the most of the dramatic setting of steep hillsides, many hundreds of large mature trees, hedgerows and characterful winding farmtracks. These landscape assets form a rich amenity for residents with the homes integrated into a network of varied public spaces and green routes, and every dwelling benefiting from a green outlook. The design opens up these amenities for the wider community through a series of links to the surrounding residential areas connecting to Coulsdon town centre and the train station. As well as these, routes for active travel to the local high street, a bus runs through the development. Several historical buildings are retained, with a chapel providing a site for a nursery and community café, and a water tower feature that can be seen from across the site, aiding orientation and providing a focal point. A variety of homes of different sizes and characters, with 25% provided at affordable tenures, make a significant contribution to meeting local residents’ needs. The homes are designed to be distinctive in each part of the site, allowing residents to feel they live in a street with a unique character and a house tailored to its setting. Each street has its own scale, outlook, and relationship to the landscape features, all supported by a subtly shifting use of materials and palette of simple details. To support this we have arranged the front gardens to accommodate the clutter of modern life, with bins stores conveniently accessed from the front, parking spaces kept behind the building lines, and a strategy for hedgerow boundary treatments to front gardens and brick walls to exposed rear gardens to support the recognisably high quality suburban character. Every home is provided with cycle storage.