This ambitious venture by a collection of related clients was to develop a series of vacant plots into large family holiday homes all at the same time. The initial scope was for 5 houses which were all approved at the planning stage and the practices’ involvement varied from project to project/ client to client thereafter. These were significant buildings in their own right each with a high value construction budget thus making the development if taken as a whole considerable.
- Milton Keynes is a new town with neighbourhoods popping up all the time, so designing a home without a strong architectural heritage can be challenging. Certain constraints helped shape early ideas on materials: brick, slate and some render, stone and aluminium; and form: nearby similar houses are generally large gable ended steep multi-roofed properties. From this point each scheme in turn took shape.
- It was interesting to work on several projects on site at once in the same street and with the same contractor for the most part. The practice was able to demonstrate its ability to design, detail and deliver well considered and beautiful buildings even at a large scale and across several plots at once whilst making them distinct. The challenge in this was to maintain a consistency of design for the street scene whilst satisfying each client’s need for individuality.
- These were the first complete new-build houses the studio built in the UK and the practice hopes to be able to branch these skills into larger housing developments.
