Farnborough Road development, Castle Vale, Birmingham
Case study report: CABE
Homes: 237
Local authority: Birmingham City Council
Acorn class: Five
Developer: Castle Vale Housing Action Trust
and Lovell Partnerships
Setting: Suburban brownfield
Date: February 2007
Summary
Castle Vale Housing Action Trust recognised the importance of good design in regeneration, ensuring a design-led and participative approach. The development process was robust: the development brief and masterplan contributed to the creation of a generally well-designed built environment, with a distinctive character and strong sense of place.
The design team and local authority planning team both had good urban design skills, although the local authority made only minor changes due to the strength of the proposed design The design team was retained by the housing action trust to guide and audit the work of the developer.
Background
The Farnborough Road site is one of three major redevelopment areas within Castle Vale, which was the largest housing estate built in Birmingham in the 1960s. The edevelopment was led by Castle Vale Housing Action Trust (CVHAT), a a public sector agency set up to regenerate the estate and to reverse many decades of physical, social and economic decline. The trust was set up in 1993 and completed its 12-year, £300 million regeneration programme
in March 2005.
The Farnborough Road site lay on an existing open playing field, and also replaced six tower blocks. The new development comprises 237 new flats, houses and bungalows, with the playing fields repositioned to the east of the development.
Most of the homes provide accommodation for tenants of the social landlord. However, the rehousing programme was so successful in providing accommodation for former tenants that the trust was left with a surplus of homes. It was able to sell 26 on the private market and these sold extremely quickly.
Overview
The original architecture, public art, diverse housing types and detailing of the buildings has resulted in a scheme with a distinctive character and a strong sense of place. The use of strong colours and differing scale at gateways and corner points makes the development legible and easy to navigate.
A well-defined structure of perimeter blocks creates a successful public street scene whilst providing private space to the rear. The scheme is very successfully integrated with the surrounding areas by numerous pedestrian routes connected with local play and sports facilities, and other neighbourhood services. It seeks to reduce its environmental impact through the use of rainwater harvesting, greywater recycling, solar heating and photovoltaic panels.
Buildings overlook public areas and streets and the scheme is well-lit, making it feel safe. The enclosure within streets is generally good, except in the streets with smaller-scale bungalows, where the road width tends to be excessive and the dominance of roads is exacerbated by the over-use of tarmac. There is also evidence of low cost and, in some cases, poor-quality materials for the buildings, street materials and limited landscaping.
Approach to planning and design
The importance of the role of good design in regeneration was recognised by CVHAT, which produced a development brief for the site in 1995 with Hunt Thompson Architects, in consultation with the local community. The brief set out the vision for the site and provided guidelines on density and urban form, hard and soft landscaping and public open space. For example, it said the majority of flats would be accommodated along the Farnborough Road, to create a strong street frontage and urban scale, with a more domestic residential character in the streets behind.
In 1997, following a design competition, Walker Troup Architects was invited to draw up a masterplan for the site. After a delay caused by the discovery of an underground gas leak, the masterplan was completed in 2001. Walker Troup put forward a contemporary approach to the design, which uses varied building forms and strong render colours to provide identity and legibility.
The original architecture creates a place with a distinctive character
A pedestrian- friendly environmenthas been created
Rooflines and corners add interest andaid navigation around the scheme
Use of materials, colour and detail adds to the variety and interest of the design
The developer, Lovell Partnerships, was involved in the scheme from February 2001 until completion and regarded it as unique in its experience in terms of the design approach, dwelling types and use of contemporary materials. A planning application was submitted in October 2001 and the scheme was completed in March 2004.
The trust, architect, developer and council officers worked closely on the evolution of the design, taking part in pre-application discussions, and all seem to have felt that the collaboration was successful. The council’s supplementary planning guidance for residential development, Places for living, was just in place (March 2001), and the site’s design responds to the guide’s more generic guidance and objectives, including promoting permeability, legibility and security for car users, pedestrians and cyclists. At the time, the council had awell-established urban design team, and officers involved commented that they were generally pleased with the emerging design, and advised on minor design issues, rather than major changes.
Aplanning condition secured the ‘Project Wagtail’ route through the development, which provides a 9m wide boulevard for a footpath, cycle way and bridle path. A traffic- calming scheme has also been introduced. While the council officers wanted more soft landscaping, the choice of landscaping materials aimed to minimise construction and maintenance costs.
The lack of enclosure in streets with bungalows may have been due to an over-rigid application of guidance on street widths by the development control officer and transport officer, combined with the design team’s wish to cluster bungalows together. However, development control officers now have a much better appreciation of urban design issues.
CVHAT paid for Walker Troup Architects to be retained in a design guidance role after its initial contract had expired, to steer and audit work by Lovell. The developer found it useful to work with Walker Troup at later stages, as it was another set of ‘eyes and ears’ over the development of the scheme and was able to help the developer resolve a number of problems during construction. Both the client and developer felt that the degree to which the developer was involved in community consultation, through attendance at public consultation events, helped to strengthen the working relationship.
The encouraging signal this development sends out is that it is possible to take an approach that is both design-led and cost-effective, allowing a high-quality, predominantly social housing scheme to be built on a relatively low budget in a regeneration area.
Some problems with design are highlighted, for example excessive road widths on streets with bungalows have led to a lack of enclosure in some places (photo: EDAW)
Parking is kept to the front of dwellings either in driveways or on-street
This case study is one of six featured in the February 2007 CABE report: Housing audit Assessing the design quality of new housing in the East Midlands, West Midlands and the South West. It scored most highly in terms of design of the six featured schemes. To download a pdf of the report click here.
