Angell Town, London: an ongoing regeneration
The regeneration of Angell Town, Lambeth, London, has been ongoing since the early 1990s, and the latest phase received a Building for Life Gold Standard award in 2006. The project is of enormous significance in terms of regeneration: the quality of life of many inner London citizens from a diverse range of backgrounds is at stake; and the scheme had tremendous demonstrative significance with relation to environmental and urban design, housing, and community participation.
Project participants: Lambeth Housing, Ujima Housing Association, Presentation Housing Association, Family Housing Association (Angell Town Estate Management Board, Angell Town Community Project, Government Office for London) with Burrell Foley Fischer, Anne Thorne Architects, Greenhill Jenner, Mode 1 Architects, solarcentury and others
Resources:
Lambeth Council Angell Town project siteBuilding for Life: Angell Town case study
CABE case studiesGuardian newspaper article o n Angell TownDesign for Homes case studySolar century PV case study, Angell Town
Burrell Foley Fischer Angell Town
Presentation Housing Association
Angell Town Community Project: tel: 020 7737 7977
Files on RUDI
Angell Town article: Building for a future magazine (pdf)
Angell Town background: phase one, 1992
Architects Burrell Foley Fischer has been involved with the scheme for a decade. In 1992 Burrell Foley Fischer designed the pilot project at Angell Town after an extensive consultation process on the best way to transform a deck-access sink estate into a desirable place to live with a long-term future. The completed project won a Civic Trust Award in 1993.
Burrell Foley Fischer are now again working with the residents, along with the other consultants, bringing the overall masterplan to life with more detailed designs based on the agreed framework.
The approach
The brief from the community then, as it is today, was that the estate should not look like social housing. The residents are more comfortable with the idea of community experienced through their involvement in the life on the estate rather than symbolised by overstated buildings or too many community structures. The people create community and the role of the architect has been to facilitate this rather than regard the site as design experiment.
Professionals are apt to forget that most people are quite expert on how their housing should be - there is a basic instinct about 'dwelling' and every person has had experience of a house or dwelling in some form. We should be careful to recognise that human beings and their relations have not fundamentally changed for generations and our zest for experimentation and fashion should be tempered by a more subtle appreciation of the act of dwelling.
The residents all have many years of experience in the planning experiments of the 1970s. Our task was to ensure that the new houses and flats have an individuality that people can identify with and to play down the elements of the architecture that traditionally are associated with 'housing schemes'. These are usually led by management and cost considerations that are often unwittingly reflected in the design rather than the concerns of the people that will live there.
We found it was unnecessary to have numerous flats served from soulless shared staircase enclosures that encourage abuse and are uninviting. Instead we have created mews dwellings that have small ground level back yards that can be used by people with pets and maybe small children. As a result we only have two flats that share the same entrance from the street and we have no (ubiquitous) overdesigned stair enclosures. Instead there are facades that emphasise the living spaces and the individual entrances.
We have also created areas of semi-public space as transition areas off the street and have been very clear about understanding the need for clearly demarcated public and private (secure) space.
The homes are designed to 'lifetime home' standards and while they are the product of many discussions with the residents (whose tastes in the majority are very traditional) we recognise that over a period of time new residents will occupy the houses.
Finally the layout of the new streets and mews in a hierarchy of spaces has a very conscious sense of their location. The buildings were required to be no higher than three stories and many are two storeys to create a humane urbanity. The site planning is therefore intentionally closely planned with no undefined anonymous spaces - the maximum amount of space is given to the residents to use. Public spaces have not escaped detail consideration and are seen as very important.
The safety of children has been considered to create a place that they like and identify with and which they can orientate to and which has spaces and places that are memorable.
The central green space, 'Little Angells' park, is a new focal point for the area, particularly for children. Facades and routes all respond to this space.
Environmental credentials: Solarcentury PV case study, 2005
The project at Boatemah Walk has a major role to play in the completion of Angell Town. This is Lambeth's flagship sustainable construction project, demonstrating sustainable design, construction and energy production.
The Solar PV system for the development generates clean electricity that feeds into the power supplies of the four disabled ground floor flats, helping to address issues of fuel poverty for these tenants.
The project is part of Lambeth’s plan to introduce solar power to a significant cross section of the whole community. solarcentury has already successfully worked on previous small scale PV projects with the London Borough of Lambeth.
Boatemah Walk has a key urban design role to play in changing the image of the estate. It will transform the way the area looks from the busy Brixton Road and provide sight lines and clear pedestrian routes through to the streets of homes that now make up the area, where until now there has been an impenetrable barrier.
Boatemah Walk will also continue the tradition on Angell Town of promoting sustainable design and construction. In addition to the solar PV roof, other features include 17 new timber frame homes with FSC 'chain of custody' that also incorporate a water harvesting system to help reduce water stress, low energy design, as well as a high level of sustainable and recycled materials.
The project was developed in partnership with the existing residents. They were represented on the architects selection panel and contractor selection panel. The residents were particularly enthusiastic in their support for the ‘green’ elements of the project.
The integration of solar photovoltaics (PV) into the roof of Boatemah Walk is the first example in the UK of flexible UNISOLAR triple junction amorphous modules, integrated into the building envelope. The PV was incorporated into the roof of the new building as a fully integrated roofing product, demonstrating the flexibility of solar PV as a building material.
Boatemah Walk is considered to be an excellent location for a PV project due to its high profile location, favourable un-shaded aspect and association with refurbishment of social housing. A key aim for this project was to demonstrate sustainable and energy-saving building techniques for retro-fit and new-build projects. The project was instigated by Lambeth Borough Council, which has extensive experience of sustainable housing projects.
The photovoltaic (PV) array installed is made up of 106nr AluPlusSolar 136 photovoltaic laminates supplied by solarcentury. The laminates cover a total area of approximately 230m2, and are capable of providing a total peak power of 14.4 kWp (DC) under Standard Test Conditions (STC). The estimated annual energy yield for the array is 13,350 kilowatt hours (units of electricity).
Community engagement: ongoing from 1992 to 2007
Project participants: Lambeth Housing, Ujima Housing Association, Presentation Housing Association, Family Housing Association (Angell Town Estate Management Board, Angell Town Community Project, Government Office for London) with Burrell Foley Fischer, Anne Thorne, Greenhill Jenner, Mode 1 Architects
The estate where footballer Ian Wright grew up is hardly recognisable today. Built in the 1970s, Angell Town was a fortress of poorly constructed concrete blocks connected by high-level bridges, with garages dominating the ground level. Regeneration of this entirely social housing scheme has been driven by the community. Nearly 600 units have either been refurbished or newly built. The design is subtle but the variety and quality of materials used - render, brick, glass and timber and innovative design features such as striking white rendered staircases - make a statement.
The most recently completed project on the estate, Boatemah Walk that is a new-build block of 18 flats by Anne Thorne Architects, is rated Eco-Homes excellent. It integrates a solar power, rain water harvesting and water conservation. Environmentally friendly paints and floor finishes were used. The judges praised the independent thinking behind the scheme, although had reservations about the unsophisticated landscaping.
