Design process

After Northampton was identified for major expansion, former farming land at Upton was acquired by Northampton Development Corporation and subsequently transferred to English Partnerships (EP). Outline planning permission was granted in 1997 for a conventional scheme based on the current car-dominated paradigms – culs de sac off distributor roads and local services located in the scheme’s centre.

In 2001, EP with the Prince’s Foundation and Northampton Borough Council appointed a design team led by EDAW, and together formed the Upton Working Group. After a series of Enquiry by Design exercises, a radically different plan for a sustainable community was prepared using a design code. Major differences included a network of connected streets with a spinal high street, and shifting local services to the urban extension’s edge to link with adjoining neighbourhoods and better integrating it with the rest of Northampton.

The Upton Framework Plan received planning approval in February 2003 for eight sites and work started on the infrastructure provided by EP. The 2003 design code was not adopted by the local authority but became the landowner’s instrument for achieving the plan’s objectives and the basis for selecting house builders. This was done through a two-stage tendering process, the first producing a short list based on design quality, from which the second stage winner, Paul Newman Homes’ scheme designed by KRT Associates, was selected by taking financial considerations into account.