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St Mary's Island
Chatham, Kent
Introducing prefabricated timber construction (up to five storeys high) from sustainable forests was fundamental to this project’s success.
Overlooking the River Medway in Kent, the Fishing Village (on the north side of St Mary’s Island) represents a wholly new departure for the fate of Chatham Maritime. 400 years of highly contaminating shipbuilding and repair by the Royal Navy (including the cleaning of nuclear-powered submarines) has given way to an ecologically sound and environmentally friendly mixed use development.
Drawing on motifs associated with traditional seaside villages, but with a modern sustainable approach, it is part of a larger public and private sector investment (over £400 million) in Chatham Maritime. The 151 homes upon the 7.4 acre (2.96 ha) site of the Fishing Village, divided between seven apartment blocks and about 50 houses, all include solar panels and rainwater harvesting facilities and have been built of timber farmed from sustainable forests.
The Fishing Village is one phase of Countryside Maritime’s development at St. Mary’s Island. Information on the later phases will follow shortly.
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