Location: Hackney, East London
Client: Peabody Trust, Ujima, Unitary Trust
Description: Large estate regeneration and density increase
Start / Completion: Preferred bidder status 2001 - 2003
Notes:

Kings Crescent is a late-60s estate in Brownswood district of Hackney. It was made up of system-built towers and a mixture of slab block and terraced housing, laid out around a number of squares which are used as service yards. It has suffered from a lack of maintenance and management, and problems with drugs and prostitution have built up over the years. The interior layouts of the majority of the flats are well designed and liked by their residents. Our role was to work with landscape designer, West 8, to meet a brief that required a master plan and energy-efficient building designs. Site regeneration had to be achieved without external financial input. This was to be primarily achieved by increasing the density, and by adding market sale accommodation, most of which was to be in three new towers overlooking the park. Although the consortium was successful in becoming preferred bidder, the project did not go ahead. Reasons for this include, we understand, the residents' vote to reject the increase in density.