Bacton Low Rise Phase 1

The transformation of Bacton Low Rise in Camden (London, United Kingdom), is a resident-led housing project focused on the renewal of a 1960s estate into a new community of homes for local residents. The three-phase masterplan, which will deliver 294 mixed-tenure homes, is the first major project for Camden acting as developers and is seen as an exemplary new way for the council to build excellent homes and maximize land use through cross-subsidy, whilst nurturing and enhancing the existing social fabric avoiding any need to disperse the existing community and residents during construction. Working closely with the residents and Camden Council, we have sought to rectify past mistakes and reconnect the neighbourhood with the surrounding area. Our team has worked side by side with the tenants, residents association and Camden in a reciprocal and collaborative process that ensured the proposals reflected the architects’ vision, the clients’ aspirations and the needs of the established community. In the first, completed phase, we provided 67 new homes, 46 of which are social rent council homes for existing residents, with a combination of terraced townhouses, stacked maisonettes and generous apartments. Overall, the scheme is a contextual and modern expression of urban family life, with front gardens, spacious roof terraces, communal courtyards, high-quality brickwork and large windows. The result is an attractive, robust and sustainable family of new homes whose success is testament to the ambitious design, strong client leadership and collaborative design process with both the residents and local council. The scheme forms a part of Camden’s Community Investment Programme, a 15 year plan to invest money in schools, homes and community facilities. By selling/ redeveloping properties that are out of date, expensive to maintain, or underused and difficult to access, it will help generate funds that are not otherwise available to reinvest into improving other services.