Nooks and crannies
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With development land still at a premium, homes are being shoehorned onto sites of all shapes and sizes. Kath Grant reports on the art of building between the gaps.
When the Olympic flame flares in London four years from now, the residents of a new Stratford housing development will have a bird’s eye view. The Stratford Eye scheme, one of the most recent examples of affordable housing built on an infill site, overlooks the location of the 2012 games.
With land in short supply, especially in cities, an increasing number of infill site developments are helping to meet housing need. Parcels of land in predominantly built-up areas, some of it brownfield or previously developed land but sometimes just the space left between buildings, are being transformed in order to provide people with homes. These infill sites are often tricky to develop – they are odd shapes, may have limited access for vehicles and often require remediation to clear the land after previous uses.
London & Quadrant Group’s striking Stratford Eye, which includes 61 per cent affordable housing, was built on the site of the former Maryland Works garment factory. It is next to a railway line and the Channel Tunnel link runs 7 metres below the development. ‘Some remedial work had to be done on the ground and the site is also quite narrow, which was challenging for the contractor when it came to getting the plant and machinery in place,’ explains Simon Baxter, senior land and development manager at L&Q, whose North Thames regional office is also part of the scheme.
In London, there has been a growing tendency over the last few years to build social housing on former commercial or industrial land in order to meet targets set in the London Plan for 50 per cent of all new housing to be affordable.
But Mr Baxter says local authorities are sometimes reluctant to agree to the recycling of commercial sites for residential purposes. ‘They don’t like to lose the designated employment space completely so the answer is often a mixed development proposal – part housing and part employment, with community facilities sometimes included as well.’
Another London development, Places for People’s Kleine Wharf scheme in Hackney, has been built alongside the Regent’s Canal, in an area which fell into decline when the canal traffic died.
The new development has brought back into use a derelict brownfield site, which was once home to the Kleine Manufacturing Company. Formerly designated as an employment-only zone, it now features affordable rented flats as well as flats for sale, a café and 2,500 square feet of commercial workspace for small businesses.
In addition, there is community office space, which has been partly let to the Metropolitan Police as a base for its neighbourhood support officers.
Tricky business
Further north, Matthew Harrison, deputy chief executive and director of development at Manchester-based Great Places Housing Group, says 90 per cent of its development is on brownfield sites.
‘It can be tricky using infill sites, there are often problems with the ground and you really have to be ready for anything going wrong.
‘For example, if it’s the site of former houses there could be cellars still in the ground or on former industrial sites you might get some level of contamination.’
Two of Great Places’ best-known housing developments, Guest Street and Islington Square in New Islington, Manchester, have won plaudits for their innovative and environmentally friendly designs.
But part of these two developments was built on the site of one of the earliest steam-powered mills, so there were archaeological considerations before any work could begin.
‘There were a lot of remains of the structure of the mill underneath the surface – so some excavation work was done before we started on the developments,’ says Karen Fenton, who was development manager for both schemes.
The mill was converted into an engineering works before the site eventually fell into disuse. More recently it was landscaped and used for recreational purposes. When work on New Islington began, initial ground investigations showed that the site’s industrial history had left the land contaminated.
Project engineer David Smith says the ground investigation highlighted two areas where contaminants above threshold level were present. The contaminated material was removed and sent to a special ground treatment centre. ‘Our remediation strategy was to excavate to a depth of 1 metre below the finished ground level and import certified clean material into the site,’ Mr Smith recalls.
It’s not just the urban centres – coastal towns are also benefiting from infill site development. City Point in Brighton is the first phase in the town’s New England urban quarter, the £200 million regeneration of a former railway goods yard next to Brighton station. The New England quarter has been designed to help meet local people’s housing and employment needs – and Moat Housing Group is developing the affordable housing element of the scheme, which comprises around half of the new homes.
The first phase has provided 93 affordable homes, needed badly in Brighton where the increased demand for housing – particularly from Londoners – has priced many local people out of the market.
Along the coastline, Places for People is currently working on the development of the Willingden Trees estate in Eastbourne. This 1970s social housing estate contains underused communal car parks and green space that have been identified for infill site schemes. A feasibility study has shown there are 12 possible infill sites which could be developed on the estate, providing 37 new homes. Plans for the estate’s makeover include improvements in layout, appearance and green areas.
As Mr Harrison points out, infill site developments can come in a range of shapes and sizes. ‘Developing social housing on these kind of sites means living and working with what is already around you.
‘In most cases, you are sharing the neighbourhood with other people so you have to be very aware of the needs of the surrounding communities. It’s very important to communicate with them properly so they fully understand what you are planning for the site.’
StratfordEye: towers and tunnels
Keeping a close watch on the emerging Olympic site, the 19-storey tower at London & Quadrant Group’s Stratford Eye development dominates the local skyline.
The tower provides 62 private apartments, which will help fund the 49 shared-ownership apartments and 49 rented homes that are included in other middle-rise parts of the scheme. L&Q’s low-rise North Thames regional office is also on the Stratford Eye site.
The development was built on the old Maryland Works site on the periphery of Stratford town centre. Initially a railway warehouse, the building was later converted into a garment factory but fell into disuse many years before L&Q sought planning permission to develop the site and was in an advanced state of dereliction.
The poor state of the building and the fact that it suffered some bomb damage during World War II meant that a new build solution was the only viable option economically.
Simon Baxter, senior land and development manager at L&Q, says the site was relatively narrow, which meant it was difficult for the contractor to get machinery onsite and, with part of the development running next to a stretch of the London-Southend railway, the contractor had to be careful that no debris was accidentally dropped onto the line.
The Channel Tunnel rail link runs underneath part of the site so L&Q’s low-rise office was built on top of this and foundations for the middle-rise housing structures are concrete – putting much less strain on the ground below. The tower apartments are at the end of the site and are not affected by the underground tunnel link.
Mr Baxter says some contamination was found on the site due to its industrial history but this was not excessive and the material was disposed of at a licensed centre. As much of the ground material as possible was crushed and reused.
Abbey Hulton: unexpected challenges
Building new bungalows on an infill site in Abbey Hulton, Stoke-on-Trent, threw up some unexpected challenges for housing association Affinity Sutton.
The 32 bungalows are for people aged over 55: eight are shared ownership and the rest are for rent. Many residents have now moved in and the last properties are due to be handed over by the end of this month.
The development is in the middle of a 1930s housing estate and on the site of a former two-storey block of general needs flats, which was demolished five years ago. Abbey Hulton falls within the North Staffordshire housing market renewal pathfinder area and the site of the former flats was identified as suitable for a new housing development for older people.
But when work began on the site, the ground – which is clay – was found to contain some soft sandy spots. ‘The ground was just falling away so some very deep foundations had to be laid on the site in order to allow building to take place,’ explains Rachel Rowley, development manager for the midlands and the north at Affinity Sutton.
A further challenge came when a deep culvert was found to run across the site. A concrete raft foundation was used so that part of the development could be built on top of the culvert.
‘The residents are very pleased with their new homes because they have been involved in the design and layout of the project every step of the way,’ Ms Rowley says. ‘The flats that were formerly on the site weren’t very popular, the properties were in low demand and hard to rent, which was why the decision was taken to demolish them.’
Oldham: hills headache
Oldham is dominated by the bleak Pennine moorland that rises steeply above the town – and the hills led to a development headache for an infill site scheme in the Coppice area.
The development of 18 four, five and seven-bedroom homes in Selwyn Street is in the heart of a tightly packed urban neighbourhood of mainly two-bedroom Victorian terrace properties.
The project, which is in the Oldham/ Rochdale housing market renewal pathfinder area, provided badly needed large family homes for rent, shared ownership and outright sale.
‘It was a demolition site and was formerly occupied by housing association flats,’ says Matthew Harrison, director of development at Great Places.
‘Oldham is a very hilly town and there were severe level changes across the site. Half of the development was on a higher level and the rest of it was on lower ground. In order to build, we had to design and construct some enormous and steep retaining walls. It was a challenge for the contractor but the development has been a great success.’
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