CASE STUDY 25
Braeburn Estates, explained that the company didn’t want to just pay the council the money necessary to achieve this. “We looked at the option of writing a cheque, but we thought we could do something better,” he said. “That was partly about control of delivery, and partly about what was good for the community.” The decision was taken with the council therefore to plan the construction of a high-quality affordable housing development on a council-owned site in need of regeneration, with Canary Wharf Contractors leading the build process. The Braeburn team, together with project
architects Darling Associates, searched through all of the available council-owned sites within a mile radius of the Shell Centre Tower that could have potential for infill development, or something similar. “Following a lengthy decision process, we chose the Ethelred Estate site,” detailed Howard. “While it was one of the more complicated sites available, it was where we thought we could do the most good and deliver the highest number of homes.”
THE ESTATE The Ethelred Estate was first built in the 1960s, with four 22-storey tower blocks dominating the site, situated around a multi-storey car park. As Howard puts it, “It
was in need of updating.” “The car park was used by only a handful
of residents, had fallen into disrepair, and was attracting anti-social behaviour,” he explains. “However, this was about spotting an opportunity to deliver a project that made a difference.” The car park had reportedly created a negative social barrier, blocking access routes around the estate and to the under-utilised community park. To the developers, the car park had one stand out asset, however: the nursery and children’s centre located in temporary buildings on its roof, which served 76 local children and had an Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ rating. “We felt we could provide a new permanent building to house the nursery, improve its facilities, and increase its capacity,” said the MD.
THE SITE PLAN
The site had a number of constraints, but the team decided that with “good design and modern architecture,” they could deliver a project that went “above and beyond.” “We wanted to open the site up, and that meant shuffling a lot of things around on the site plan,” said Howard. “We worked closely with Lambeth Council to deliver a
“WE THOUGHT WE COULD DO SOMETHING BETTER. THAT WAS PARTLY ABOUT CONTROL OF DELIVERY, AND PARTLY ABOUT WHAT WAS GOOD FOR THE COMMUNITY”
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