We are delighted the RIBA East jury panel have handed a second RIBA Award to PTE this year, for our custom-made homes in Essex.
Building on our success of our innovative council housing infill at Dover Court, which won a RIBA London award last week, RIBA East has named another of our exemplar housing projects, the 250-home Beechwood Village in Basildon, as a regional winner.
The variety in each home’s design is central to the sense of place we sought to evoke. We saw this as typically Essex – or typically this part of Essex - in that it picks up on the local tradition made famous by Dunton Plotlands, of custom build homes. However, these factory-made dwellings, devised partly by residents using software to adapt readymade templates.
Here’s the jury’s summary of its recent visit to review the scheme: ‘Walking through the scheme, the jury was impressed by the genuine sense of place that had been created. Rather than the streetscape being dominated by cars, the parking requirement has been accommodated largely on-plot, prioritising views of the communal spaces. Street widths and housing typologies are varied and there is an interplay of housing, streets, and landscape, which creates areas of different character within the scheme. Across the centre of the development is a series of ‘linked greens’ which provide communal amenity space for residents and create a wildlife corridor between neighbouring parks. As a whole, the scheme creates a convincing, contemporary neighbourhood which, by employing innovative design and construction methodologies, has delivered a sense of agency, quality and variety for its residents.’