West Green Place N17 provides 126 homes along a new street with generous public realm and entrance square, which allows access to the greenery of Downhills Park.
Pocket Living set HTA the challenge of maximising the number of affordable Pocket homes, along with new two bedroom apartment typologies and family town houses, on a constrained backland site squeezed between the short back gardens of the existing terraced houses and the tree lined edge of Downhills Park.
The result is 126 beautifully-designed homes that relate sensitively to neighbouring architecture whilst making the most of views and connections, demonstrating the huge potential to deliver new homes that enrich and add value to existing communities on challenging (sub)urban infill sites.
The design knits together an elegant new entrance square and flexible avenue that provides access and parking and incorporates planting, play and public access to Downhills Park. A mix of pavilions and terraces modulate the massing and forms in response to neighbouring conditions to maintain sunny gardens and well-lit homes. Traditional materials with contemporary styling deliver emerging expectations of beauty and gentle density, ensuring long-term sustainability. Pocket Living’s discounted sale home model enables 80% of the homes to be affordable in perpetuity, including the developer’s first two bedroom apartments. The family houses help ensure a more diverse and mixed community.
The brick-based architecture responds to its context and seeks to establish a unique identity for the development while respecting the material palette and details of the surrounding Victorian streets. To achieve this, an alternating palette of London stock and red brick is used and is articulated using a variety of pilasters, shadow gaps and corbels. Echoing the stonework lintels, cills, entrances and string courses of the surrounding streets, accents are created using a combination of white cast stone and glass reinforced concrete frame windows with angled lintels, soffits and jambs as well as entrance canopies and string courses.
The terraced town houses, which step the scale of the site to reflect the surrounding context, have been carefully designed to minimise overlooking and maximise light to existing homes to the east through a distinctive section that slopes down to the ground floor. This creates a generous vaulted ceiling with roof lights to the living room which are combined in an open plan configuration with the kitchen and dining space to offer dual east and west aspect which both addresses the public realm and the private garden. The homes were developed with a dedicated home working space within the master bedroom and a distinctive first floor bedroom with a roof window to avoid any potential for overlooking.
The Pocket Living concept is to provide compact homes for sale which are affordable in perpetuity and are aimed at enhancing community wellbeing. The scheme is the first Pocket development to offer two-bedroom flats for sale, whilst 80% of homes in the scheme overall meet the GLA’s definition of affordable. In addition to these Pocket discounted flats there are 12 open-market two-bedroom flats and 16 three-bedroom family townhouses, ensuring that the new development benefits from a diverse community that accommodates families.
Pocket Living engaged widely with local community groups and residents to ensure the development fits sympathetically into the area. Extensive direct engagement took place with key stakeholders West Green Play Group and the Goan Community Centre, who were relocated as a part of the development into a purpose-built facility on the site.
The client’s endorsement :
West Green Place N17 is Pocket Living’s largest project to date, with a demanding brief on a challenging site, overcoming plenty of opportunities to be derailed. A forgotten brownfield site squeezed between rear gardens and the pretty Downhills Park, HTA crafted a sensitive design response that optimised the site, created a new community, making the most of the views and access to the park. HTA skilfully evolved the scheme to respond to Haringey’s requirements, accommodated site boundary changes and gained support from a wide range of concerned neighbours. They worked collaboratively with Dyvik Kahlen Architects, the competition, winning designers of the new nursery on site as well as with the contractor to deliver quality construction throughout the scheme. Pocket Living could not be more delighted at the outcome of the project and the quality of the completed scheme.
