Europan 8: Stonebridge, London

The site

The competition site forms part of the redevelopment of a poorly designed and problematic area of housing built in the 1970s, in Harlesden, North West London. At the time of the competition the site was occupied by two high-rise housing blocks, which were due to be demolished. The challenge was to create a proposal that would improve the residential environment and the amenities for the wider community, so that the site might become an exemplar of positive change in the area. It is the intention of the remodelling programme that all sectors of the community have access to generously sized and robustly built homes, with a mix of housing for rent and for sale.

The wider study area sat within the Stonebridge Estate, a large multicultural area in the London Borough of Brent. It is near to an arterial road leading into central London and the main railway line into Paddington Station. Several different architectural practices have worked on the early stages of the re-design and the result is a dense, low rise but varied urban landscape. It has existing shops, a pub and a new nursery by Alsop and Partners.

The brief

The brief was to design varied residential accommodation around a new park of approximately 1 hectare, with entrants expected to design both the housing and the park. This raised issues of how private dwellings interact with public space, how landscape and built form relate and how the site connects to the urban blocks in the surrounding streets. Designers were also asked to respond to the new, striking nursery building within the site.

The brief asked for proposals for the site which would be in line with the overall strategic masterplan, which stipulates blocks of terraced housing and flats, generally at 4 storeys. It was also requested that entrants consider how new homes could be reconfigured into larger or smaller units in the future, and how streets could be configured to prioritise pedestrians over cars. In addition, competitors were invited to put forward ideas for minimising energy consumption and applying environmentally friendly design principals.