Queen Elizabeth Park

The masterplan aimed to liberate green space for communal appreciation and activity. Set within an area of typical post-war housing, this exceptional site provides a much-needed green lung. The development also offers vital commercial elements, as well as social amenities.

The design of the early phases is particularly satisfying. Plan forms are convincing, with good storage, and connections to the exterior made by the inclusion of integral garden rooms or conservatories. Dwellings are designed to be spacious, and provide light and air, as well as benefiting from the fine views. Massing and elevational treatment have been carefully considered so that these distinctive buildings should work well over time.

Car parking spaces, rather than garages, avoids the disruptive scale of garage doors in dwellings which are based on the pre-car era aesthetic. The choice and handling of the materials is true to the concept, with the proportion of the PVC side-hung windows being satisfactory.

Despite the amount of open space provided, increased general and local densities could have provided more extensive and useful amenity space, as well as many more badly needed homes. Planning restrictions and local interest groups have done neither the locality, nor the country, particularly good service.