Type/size: Refurbishment of car park structure into 6 unique residential dwellings
Location: Walsall
Status: Completed 2017
Contract Value: £0.9 million
Construction Type: Traditional masonry/ refurb
Client: Accord Housing Association (In-house scheme)
Scheme Overview:
Sister Dora is a resident refurbishment development of 6x 2 bed 4 persons single storey houses via the conversion of an existing carparking block. The intention was to retain the majority of the existing car parking structure due to its decorative front façade.
The Conversion of this redundant carparking block provided a number of benefits:
A) Provide much needed affordable housing.
B) Removed the risk for anti-social activity surrounding the
redundant parking block, which has been a persistent, ongoing
issue for local residents.
C) Provided natural passive surveillance of the parking court and
increased use of this area once houses were occupied.
D) Enhanced the outlook for existing residents.
The properties are accessed via the original arched openings to the subterranean car park which now house spacious open plan living areas to front of the properties. To provide natural daylight into the centre of new dwellings a central lightwell has been provided with windows into the bedrooms at the rear. This also provides access to the roof terrace gardens above via a external staircase and has space for a informal seating area within the stairwell.
This was a challenging refurbishment project for Indesign which provided a opporunity to create some unique roof terraced properties and regenerate a site which had previously experienced a range of anti social problems.