Floyds Lane
Type/size: 62 residential dwellings
Location: Daw End, Walsall
Status: Completed 2018
Contract Value: £6.5 Million
Construction Type: MMC- OSM Timber panelised system (Eco 100 by Local Homes)
Client: Accord Housing Association (In-house scheme) in association with Seddons Construction
Awards:
Social Housing Development of the Year- The Bricks awards 2018 (Highly Commended)
Scheme Overview:
Floyds Lane is a 63 unit 100% social housing scheme based in Walsall with a combination of both houses and apartments. The scheme was built for Accord Housing Association and designed in association with Seddons who were the contractor for the scheme.
The site used to house the premises of the Daw End Special School which was demolished in 2010 and had been vacant for a number of years before it was purchased by Accord. The site was relatively flat and regular in shape with residential housing to the north and east, a community centre to the west and grazing grassland to the south. Further south is the Park Lime Pits Nature Reserve which is a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC).
The final proposals consisted of 39 houses (a mixture of 2-3 bedroom properties) and 24 apartments within one three storey block. The houses were configured in a series of terraces and semi-detached units which are all two storey ranging from 75 to 82 Sqm in size. The apartments are three storey with two stair cores serving 12 apartments each.
The houses were built in Accord’s timber frame factory (LoCAL Homes) which produces low carbon homes designed using fabric first principles. The houses were constructed using the ECO 100 timber frame system with an outer brick skin whilst the apartments were traditional masonry construction.
The layout has been arranged to address the existing frontages whilst continuing the existing building line on Floyds Lane whilst also enclosing vulnerable boundaries to existing rear gardens to adjacent houses. The layout is formed out of 3 blocks of housing and a block of apartments with amenity space which is arranged around the new highway network. The apartments are located in the far south-west corner to reduce the impact of the three storeys building on the surrounding dwellings and to take advantage of the views across the open space beyond the southern boundary.
In terms of the elevations the roof geometry is pitched, approx 35 degrees with clipped eaves and slim line gutters. The façades are simple and skinned in brickwork with subtle banding details to the first floors. Large full height windows with opaque panels are arranged to bring as much light as possible into the dwellings whilst providing a balance between solid and void. Red brick was chosen for the majority of the houses especially the ones fronting onto Floyds Lane to reflect the local architectural vernacular whilst a buff brick was proposed for the apartments and houses opposite which are further into the site. Two roof tiles along with the two brick types was proposed to provide some variety to the elevations and arranged to give certain parts of the site their own identity.
The highway layout consists of a linear section of adoptable highway running from north to south to gain access into the main body of the site. A hammerhead to accommodate refuse and fire appliance accessibility is also provided. This leads to two smaller sections of highway; one providing a small vehicle hammerhead for plots 16-19 and the other leading to a parking courtyard for the apartments. The 2m pavement continues along the northern edge of the parking courtyard/shared surface to provide a pedestrian link to the public right of way to the western boundary.
Low maintenance hedgerow and shrub planting is provided to frontages which are enclosed with estate railings. Each unit has at least 1 parking space. The 2 beds have 1- 2 spaces per dwelling, the 3 beds have 2 spaces per dwelling and the apartment have 1 space each with 4x visitor spaces across the site. This results in a total of 91 spaces for 63 dwellings which is a ratio of 144%. This allowed us to avoid areas of dense parking and obtain a better ratio of hard vs soft landscaping. This ratio also allowed us to spread out the driveway and crossover points to create opportunities for on street visitor parking and the planting of street trees.
In terms of site constraints there was an existing storm sewer running through the southern section of the site which was incorporated into the new drainage proposals and an existing pumping station. The pumping station was redundant and replaced with a private one to serve the new dwellings. There was dense vegetation to the southern boundary which provided natural screening and privacy for the site and we have situated our houses to avoid any associated Root Protection Zones.
The public right of way to the west boundary was a vulnerable open boundary and security concern for the site and so we placed our new dwellings to address this footpath to create an active frontage for natural surveillance. The car park to the west is also well used and noisy hence we proposed a buffer zone of trees and shrub planting to help alleviate this as well as screening the views across. Defensive planting around the south-west corner of the site is also significant to help maintain privacy for the residents in the apartments located there.
The site was open on two sides (north & west) with unrestricted views via Floyds Lane and the community centre car park. There were no physical boundaries on these sides with only partially screening due to a scattering of trees along the main frontage on Floyds Lane. The proposals secured the site on these two open frontages with housing addressing these boundaries whilst providing permeability for pedestrians via several connecting footpaths.
We also carried out public consultation with Seddons at the adjacent community centre to keep the local residents updated on our progress. There was support for the development as since the site was vacant it had become used as a traveller’s site and local residents were keen to see the site redeveloped.
