黑洞社区

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In its partnership with Crest Nicholson, Gardner Stewart Architects has pioneered design-led, sustainable regeneration for volume builders. Their schemes have won awards from Cabe, the Civic Trust, the Home Builders Federation and Design for Homes, and been held up as models of Urban Design.

A regeneration scheme at Ingress Park in the Thames Gateway has been adopted as a demonstration of the government鈥檚 housing design policies. Some 1,350 dwellings and a 2,600m2 retail and community centre have been arranged around a park, with a boulevard leading up from the riverfront to Ingress Abbey, now converted into offices.

At Park Central in Birmingham, a council estate has been regenerated by adding 1,700 homes and converting the adjacent parkland to two public parks with a lake. The housing has a strong urban streetscape, with densities as high as 280 dwellings per hectare, with a 鈥渧ery good鈥� EcoHomes sustainability rating.

At Westway Beacons in west London, 128 apartments have been developed as five four-storey buildings arranged around a communal garden. The scheme is also the UK鈥檚 first building to generate both heating and cooling from an underground aquifer.

Runners up

黑洞社区 Design Partnership

Whether in masterplanning or architectural design, 黑洞社区 Design Partnership sets out to create places for people in towns, universities and retail developments. In Norwich, housing, a public square and an arcade links a new shopping centre to the historic city centre. In Melbourne, Australia, docklands warehouses have been replaced by an entertainment and residential urban quarter with a large waterfront piazza. Liverpool鈥檚 Paradise Street is being regenerated as 45 new and refurbished buildings containing shops, apartments and hotels.

Pollard Thomas Edwards Architects

Pollard Thomas Edwards Architects creates lively neighbourhoods by designing novel buildings for a mix of housing and other uses, illustrated in three London projects. Lingham Court鈥檚 accommodation consists of two back-to-back crescents, one of which embraces a tranquil garden for residents. Kleine Wharf fits 71 mixed-tenure apartments into an industrial canalside area, including a zone of business space and a police office. The boomerang-shaped Artesian House sweeps around two sides of a park and accommodates 73 mixed-tenure flats above a health centre.

Scott Brownrigg

At Scott Brownrigg, teams of architects, town planners, transport planners and urban designers have mastered balancing commercial demands with community needs, while delivering high-quality architecture. The former campus of Whitelands College in Putney has been converted into an estate of 437 homes. South of Reading, a former sewage treatment plant will be redeveloped as a 拢200m residential and commercial quarter. Portishead town near Bristol will be extended around a large redundant dock in a 拢400m scheme of 1,000 homes, and a commercial core.

TADW Architects

In several regeneration schemes for housing associations, TADW Architects have improved residents鈥� quality of life, marrying historical sensitivity with modern construction. In Stockport, a listed building was refurbished, medieval walls were repaired and existing buildings were converted into flats and retail units. In the Oldham/Rochdale Market Renewal area, a residential block was redeveloped as a high-density terrace of family houses. At Northmoor in Manchester, a Victorian terrace was improved, new houses were added and a local launderette refurbished.