North Watford Police Station
Working closely with Watford Community Housing Trust and their planning consultant we were able to develop an affordable high density housing scheme which successfully outbid private developers to secure this edge of suburbia site. Being able to challenge the scale of the neighbourhood and deliver a scheme which included a six storey element was key to the success of the project.
The development site lies on the edge of a dual carriageway, turning its back on the local community and providing the Police who originally occupied the buildings quick access to North Watford. Our proposals adopted the principles of Building for Life, re-establishing links from the new housing into the existing community through pedestrian, cycle and vehicular routes and using an outer ring of two storey semi-detached homes to respond to the immediate context. Siting these lower height homes to the perimeter of the site created a tabula rosa and enabled a taller block of flats to be built adjacent to the highway, away from existing homes.
The new houses and flats face into a shared surface parking court and soft landscaped amenity space, with private back gardens separating the new homes from the existing houses.
The use of early three dimensional imagery at pre-application stage enabled the local planning authority to assess the impact of the development and provide in principal support before the scheme was consulted upon at a series of public consultation events.
Status: complete Jun 17
Contract Value: £4.1M
