Our vision for Drakes Place was to create a sustainable suburb which enhances the site’s unique characteristics and sits comfortably within its context. As a team we have attempted to create evocative, original architecture that is of its time and yet aesthetically accessible so as to engender local loyalty and civic pride, a conscious exercise in sustainable peacemaking.

The scheme comprises of 75 dwellings including terraced house, townhouses and apartments of varied sizes to meet the housing needs of the area. 49 of the new homes are private for sale whereas 26 area affordable for rent.

The layout achieves built forms that specifically respond to the locality through visual links, pedestrian links and the orientation of dwellings to overlook the public realm. Housing is arranged in short terraces in perimeter blocks with a variety in character and a sense of enclosure.

Landmark buildings have been identified throughout the site at key frontages and corners or at the end of main routes; they are distinctive through the different treatments in materials, form, colours and detail.

Views to and from the site have been encouraged through the site layout design. Heights of the buildings match those of the existing buildings adjacent to the site to avoid the impact on the views for the existing residents of the area.

The landscape proposals for Drakes Place provide a high quality shared-surface streetscape that responds to both the architecture and the green setting of the development.
The scheme faces directly onto the Bearbrook watercourse forming an attractive backdrop to new housing. This green corridor provides both a visual and ecological resource which is protected and enhanced.
Mature trees are retained and pedestrian activity encourages the public to engage with the natural environment whilst protecting the habitat for the wildlife.

The scheme has a very deliberate character which will be both sympathetic to the local context but retain an identity of its own. A high quality, detailed, consistent and contemporary architectural treatment assists in creating a unique and sustainable development on the Drakes Place site.