Reversing outward migration
Great Places Lakes and Dales Partnership (GPLD) recently launched a competition for architects seeking innovative ideas for flexible housing to appeal to young people and to encourage them to stay in the Lake District. This area of the Lake District currently has 44% fewer 16-34 year olds than the national average; many move away for work, to pursue careers and in order to find affordable places to live. This raises significant concerns regarding its future economic and community resilience.
Home for Life
Our proposal for Burnside addresses the issues of opportunity, affordability and flexibility to help establish a sustainable resilient community. Forty homes, interspersed with generous shared spaces, replicate the density and vibrancy of traditional village life for the 21st century.
Everyone has the opportunity to work from home, set up a business or run a small studio or workshop because each dwelling benefits from both workspace and a residential entrance at ground level.
Each is orientated to create an alternating arrangement of mews streets and shared gardens. Work-life is encouraged to spill out one side and family life, the other.
Each home is compact, efficient yet considered and utilises innovative and sustainable construction methods for homes that are affordable and economical to run. Designed-in flexibility gives people the opportunity to easily extend their home and their business without ever having to move.
Rather than monotonous terraces, we create a patchwork of townhouse-style typologies. Separated by raised gardens, each house is individually identifiable yet part of a collective composition, stitched together by the ever-present backdrop of the nearby fells.
A meandering ‘high-street’ bisects the site. The terraces either side are flared to create both generous public spaces and intimate social spaces. The dwellings are offset in relation to one-another affording every house a view through the site to the stunning landscape beyond.
This balance of spaces allows life to flourish at family, street and community level.
