Type/size: 27 residential dwellings
Location: West Bromwich
Status: Completed 2017
Contract Value: £3.8 Million
Construction Type: MMC- OSM Timber panelised system (Eco 200 by Local Homes)
Client: Accord Housing Association (In-house scheme)
Awards:
Best New Affordable Housing Scheme- Housing Excellence Awards 2017 (Shortlisted)
Scheme Overview:
Eastern Gateway is a mixture of affordable housing and outright sale located in West Bromwich town centre. The scheme has been developed, designed and constructed using Accord’s in-house Regeneration, Architectural and Construction teams which are a unique capability based within the framework of a social landlord. The apartments / commercial element are built in Accord’s timber frame factory (Local Homes) which produces low carbon homes designed using fabric first principles with the houses being built using traditional brick / block methods.
The proposal is for 27 new dwellings. The layout consists of 2No 3 and 4 bed units and 25No 2 bed apartments.
The proposed apartment block on the corner of Bull and High Streets is critical in defining the eastern gateway of the town centre and in this location is viewed from four directions. For this reason also needs to be a striking building that makes a positive statement when entering and leaving the town centre through Dartmouth square. The rear of the proposed building reflects the palette of the residential development of which it faces, while the street facing elevations use colour and materials to make a positive statement both as a gateway building into the centre of town and announcing the Urban 180 development.
The proposal is a modern three storey apartment building combined with a ground floor retail / commercial social enterprise space, with the building set back to the apartments along High Street to provide a space for planter boxes and a paved defensible space with a dwarf brick wall and railings along the edge of pavement and the retail space forward to meet back of pavement.
The design principles of the previous phases have been carried through into phase 3. This phase adds two additional houses and extends the adoption of the road, providing direct access to the new apartment building private car parking court. The site affords 2 aspects: the public realm facing High and Bull Streets and the rear private courtyard, enclosed by a paladin fence, facing the residential houses of phase 2 of the development.