Europan 9: Stoke on Trent

Winner: City Slipway

The project

City Slipway proposes a strident organisation of the site, with a grain of tightly packed terraced housing, a focal point in the form of a residential tower, and a bold community-scaled route from top to bottom of the site, of a proportion and use that would provide an identity and heart to the neighbourhood.

The housing is organised in a back-to-back layout, and recalls the density of the housing previously occupying the site, and by using the slope of the site, external spaces are achieved within the terrace, and a variety of types of unit are accommodated within the overall form of the terrace. The manipulation of the section of the terraces allows ground level garaging to be included in some units.

Why it won

The jury applauded the clarity of the diagram for this scheme, which combines the central public route down to the canal and an iconographic element in the apartment building. The terraced housing type exploits the topography of the site well, and the jury welcomed this project’s overall confidence and ambition, noting that the primary moves of the design are sufficiently strong to shine through the complexities of developing the project into a realisable scheme.

The jury felt, along with the city, that the project proposes a vision to aspire to for the quality inner-city family living that the City Waterside development requires. The residential tower was seen as a good solution to attracting a younger population, and this kind of accommodation with panoramic views is a rarity in Stoke-on-Trent.

Team members

Russell Curtis
Tim Riley
Dieter Kleiner
Justin Bridgland