Having got interested in the issue as to how the government is going to fulfil its pledge to build 1.5 million new houses in the next five years, I went to visit one of the other housing developments in the London RIBA awards: a private development on a former industrial site in deepest Walthamstow.
At first I thought it was a wasted trip because being a private development it is not accessible:-
But then one of the owners kindly let me have a peak behind the gate:-
I thought it was impressive: all wood; reusing some of the onsite industrial materials; very heavily insulated; with a particularly charming communal area in the middle:-
It would not have made it on to the final shortlist because it is more eco than strictly architectural and has been done by a developer, not the public sector.
But if the government is going to lift planning controls, then it should surely find a way of encouraging inventive adaptations of brownfield urban sites in a way which is ecologically sustainable. This is a good model.
So, I salute the architects, Boehm Lynas, the developer GS8, and am very grateful to the residents who kindly allowed me to see it.
I am also relieved that my guesstimate of what the unit cost might be was not way out.
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 