A vintage year for housing

Ten exceptional new housing schemes have won a Building for Life award in a vintage year for housing design.

The schemes have been selected from a record 55 that achieved a Building for Life standard, 50 per cent more than last year.  For the first time, well over half of all entries reached the national standard for well designed homes and neighbourhoods.

The winning developments vary from a small self build community to a large 1,200 home multi-developer scheme. Each has held its own in a difficult commercial climate and has created the kind of housing that communities recognise as a genuine asset for their neighbourhood.

Ashley Vale in Bristol is the first scheme of its kind to win a Building for Life award and may herald a new era of community build encouraged through changes to the planning system. A mix of scales, architectural styles and materials give it a distinctive identity.

The first phase of St Andrew’s, a high-density development in east London’s Bromley-by-Bow, includes much needed family housing. It benefited from strong community involvement at an early stage, including consultation on the location of the scheme’s largest green space.

Masterplanning and design codes were crucial to creating successful new communities at the large-scale developments of Fairfield Park in Stotfold, Bedfordshire, and Water Colour in Redhill, Surrey.

Cargo in Plymouth and Stonebridge Hillside Hub in north west London are supporting transformation of deprived areas through housing-led regeneration, bringing positive change to the wider area.

Wayne Hemingway, chair of Building for Life, said:

‘Building for Life has campaigned for good design in new housing for nearly 10 years. This work is paying off. We’re finally getting new homes and neighbourhoods that look and work better. And the industry is increasingly using Building for Life to assess design quality – proving that it makes good business sense.’

Building for Life award winners 2010

Ashley Vale Self Build Development, Bristol

• Ashley Vale Action Group
• Bristol City Council

Barking Central, London

• Redrow
• Allford Hall Monaghan Morris
• London Borough of Barking and Dagenham

be: Newhall, Harlow, Essex

• Linden Homes Eastern
• Alison Brooks Architects
• Harlow Council

Cargo, Millbay, Plymouth

• English Cities Fund
• Ferguson Mann Architects
• Plymouth City Council

Cometa, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire

• Aston Homes
• Richard Clark Chartered Architects
• Wycombe District Council

Fairfield Park, Stotfold, Bedfordshire

• Stamford Homes; Persimmon Homes; Bovis; Twigden Homes; Taylor Wimpey; David Wilson Homes; Miller Homes; PJ Livesey
• Tetlow King Ltd (design code); Woods Hardwick
• Central Bedfordshire Council

St Andrew's, Bromley-by-Bow, London

• Barratt Homes East London
• Allies and Morrison
• London Borough of Tower Hamlets

Stanmore Place, Harrow, London

• St Edward Homes
• Grid Architects
• London Borough of Harrow

Stonebridge Hillside Hub, Harlesden, London

• The Hyde Group with Rydon Construction
• Edward Cullinan Architects
• Brent Council

Water Colour, Redhill, Surrey

• Linden Homes South East
• John Thompson and Partners
• Reigate and Banstead Borough Council

Notes to editors

1. For further information, please contact Dominy Bird at CABE on 020 7070 6772 or email dbird@cabe.org.uk or Steve Turner at the HBF on 020 7960 1606 or email steve.turner@hbf.co.uk
2. Barratt Developments Plc has sponsored the 2010 Building for Life awards event.
3. Building for Life is an initiative led by CABE and the Home Builders Federation, with Design for Homes.
4. The Building for Life standard is awarded to housebuilders and housing associations who demonstrate a commitment to high design standards, good place making and sustainable development. Housing schemes achieve the Building for Life standard if they fulfil at least 14 of the 20 criteria for a silver standard and 16 or more out of 20 for a gold standard. A total of 20 gold and 35 silver standards were achieved this year. For more details about the 2010 schemes that achieved a Building for Life standard please visit www.buildingforlife.org/standards
5. For more details about the Building for Life award judges please visit www.buildingforlife.org/awards/judges
6. The Building for Life criteria can be used by a development team at pre-application stage, by a planning committee to inform their decision, or as an assessment tool to gauge the quality of a completed scheme. Now there is a national network of accredited Building for Life assessors, covering almost every local authority. The 20 criteria can be found at www.buildingforlife.org/criteria
7. Communities wanting to build their own homes can carry out informal BfL assessments themselves using the Building for Life criteria, with help from local authorities.
8. The Home Builders Federation (HBF) is the principal representative body for private sector home builders and voice of the home building industry in England and Wales. The HBF’s 300 member firms account for some 80% of all new homes built in England and Wales in any one year, and include companies of all sizes, ranging from multi-national, household names through regionally based businesses to small local companies. www.hbf.co.uk
9. CABE is the government’s advisor on architecture, urban design and public space. As a public body, we encourage policymakers to create places that work for people. We help local planners apply national design policy and offer expert advice to developers and architects. We show public sector clients how to commission buildings that meet the needs of their users. And we seek to inspire the public to demand more from their buildings and spaces. Advising, influencing and inspiring, we work to create well-designed, welcoming places. www.cabe.org.uk