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Waterstone Park
Design process
The site's northern end had already been built (2002) when Gardner Stewart Architects were appointed in 2004 to prepare a masterplan and detailed designs for the southern part of the site.
In collaborating with Countryside Properties, Land Securities, which had no previous housing experience, was anxious to set a high design standard to set this scheme apart from the average quality of most new housing in the surroundings.
It was decided to give new phases of Waterstone Park a distinctive character by departing from the neo-vernacular of the earlier London Road development in favour of a simple contemporary elegance. Since a cement testing/research facility currently occupied the centre of the site, phase one was planned for the top of the hill at the site’s southern end, with subsequent phases to be constructed later in the gap between this and earlier housing on London Road, and to the west and south of Stone Castle. The architects had already established a sound working relationship with planning and highways authorities, Dartford Borough Council and Kent County Council with previous schemes in the area, and planning permission was granted in January 2005, with construction starting on site in August 2005.
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