Springvale

Type/size: 24 residential apartments

Location: Bilston, Wolverhampton

Status: Completed May 2021

Contract Value: £2.7 Million

Construction Type: MMC- OSM Timber panelised system (Eco 200 by Local Homes)

Client: Accord Housing Association (In-house scheme)

Scheme Overview:

Springvale is a new build apartment block comprising of 24x one and two bedroom units. The scheme is located near to Bilston town centre and sits on a site which used to house office accommodation for Heatun Housing Association. The scheme brief was to demolish the existing buildings on site and replace them with a new apartment block for 100% social rent.

The key constraints present on the site include the presence of large and mature trees along the two frontages. This mature vegetation and trees provide natural screening and privacy to the site and the apartment block has been positioned to avoid any Root Protection Zones. As well as providing a visual buffer they also provide an acoustic buffer against the busy traffic on Millfields Road and capture any pollution from the roadways.

The adjacent site is also under development to provide new housing and nursery care facilities and the new proposals have been considered in terms of their impact on the eastern boundary and building line. The adjacent application also flagged up that there are 7 mine shafts present on the neighbouring site which has led us to undertake detailed investigation works including a Coal Authority Report and further Mine Investigations as part of the GI report to ascertain if there are any underground shafts within our red line boundary. Initial reports and historical maps suggest that there are none. The ground investigation report also highlighted unstable ground as a result of the historic coal mining in the area and has confirmed that stabilisation works comprising of drilling & pressure grouting was required.

The above constraints and opportunities have influenced the placement of the apartments on the site and influenced positioning of entrances, car parking and landscape. These have been further influenced by the pre-application discussions we undertook with the local authority and highways department.

The final proposals consist of 8 apartments per floor split 50/50 in terms of type. The 1 Beds are 46 Sqm and the 2 Beds 58 Sqm in size and are served by two stairwells. These stairwells serve 4x apartments per floor keeping the circulation to a minimum and providing an efficient layout design. There are dual entrances front and back with curtain glazing to provide natural day light into the circulation zones.

The apartments will all be constructed using a timber frame panelised system made at the LoCaL Homes factory. This will be the full panelised ECO 200 system which will be clad in rainscreen cladding and brickwork.

The vehicle entrance is located at the rear of the site where the resident/visitor parking is situated with private amenity space and storage for waste and cycling. The building is set back to avoid the existing trees providing a green and spacious frontage for the development.

The three storey building is of a rectangular shape with two central stairwells providing recess and projection along the facade. The roof will be low pitch sitting within a parapet wall. The facade comprises of two main materials which are brick and rainscreen cladding. The red brick will be used predominately on the ground floor level rising up to full height on the two side gables. The rainscreen cladding is placed centrally full height with boxed projections on either side of the stairwells to the Millfields Road facade.

Large full height windows are provided to bring as much light into the properties to avoid dark rooms from the surrounding trees. They are ceiling height windows with opaque panels at the head and sill with aluminium surrounds to a number of windows to create a feature within the cladded areas.

The material palette uses red brick which is in-keeping with the local architectural vernacular of the area with natural, earthy colours for the cladding in a stone/concrete texture which complement the brick tones and work well against the green and leafy backdrop of the site. The cladding colours are proposed in lighter tones and hues to brighten the facade on this prominent corner plot.