Barratt and Artisan have developed a housing range designed for the needs of large, extended Asian families.

The venture has obtained planning permission for 25 three and four-bedroom family homes in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

The BASE development, in the predominantly Asian neighbourhood, replaces an equal number of terraced homes that were knocked down as part of Rochdale鈥檚 housing renewal programme.

Philip O鈥橠wyer, the scheme鈥檚 architect, is a partner at the Manchester practice OMI. He said that the homes had been designed to meet the need for separate living rooms for men and women.

Several of the homes have also been designed so that they can be easily knocked together to form one larger property. This is what many Asian large families already do with old terraced homes in the area.

Ian Fogg, the commercial director of the project, said: 鈥淭here is an opportunity to extend the properties for the extended families. There鈥檚 a great demand for large houses here.鈥

He said BASE would be seeking to roll out the designs in the North-west鈥檚 other housing market renewal areas.