In a major success for new housing in London, a regeneration masterplan for the Dollis Valley Estate Regeneration has achieved unanimous planning consent from London Borough of Barnet. The 631 dwelling masterplan was led by Alison Brooks Architects for client Countryside Properties in partnership with L&Q, with landscape design by HTA. As part of a hybrid application, detailed consent was also granted for the 108 homes by both architects forming the project's first phase.
The 1960's -built Estate, identified as one of Barnet’s priority regeneration schemes, occupies a hill-side site on the border of the Dollis Valley Open Space and King George V Playing Fields. ABA and the client team worked closely with the Dollis Valley Partnership Board and local community to produce the scheme following a successful competitive dialogue process in 2011.
ABA’s transformational masterplan re-connects the estate into the wider Barnet neighbourhood with a clear network of streets and garden squares. A predominant character of two and three-storey terraced houses with private gardens, shared communal gardens, a community centre, nursery and tree-lined avenues offers a contemporary reinterpretation of the archetypal London Garden Suburb.
Unusually wide house plots accommodate a variety of plan forms and on-plot parking, making streets car-free. ABA have developed house typologies with a range of distinctive crown and mansard roofs that express each house clearly within longer terraces. The geometry refers to the Arts & Crafts vernacular of local Barnet neighbourhoods and the tradition of crown roofs of London’s 19th Century suburbs. Internal house areas exceed the London Housing Design Guide requirements. Four storey apartment buildings delineate major streets and act as markers at the end of the masterplan's main avenues. A central garden square acts as a multi purpose community space and threshold to the 10-mile Dollis Valley riverside Greenwalk.
The new Dollis Valley neighbourhood will not only be ‘green’ but will be ‘smart’: building designs integrate photovoltaic arrays, passive solar, smart metering and rainwater collection. Designed to Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4, the team aims to place Dollis Valley at the leading edge of sustainable suburban development. The regeneration scheme will be built in five phases over seven years, with work starting on site in autumn 2013. The project has been short-listed for the 2013 New London Architecture Awards.
