Affordable Apartments in Handsworth, Birmingham
The commission was won through an invited design competition against a number of local practices specialising in affordable housing. The brief called for a mix of housing types on Wellington Road, Handsworth, including 2, 3 and 4-bedroom houses and 2-bedroom apartments, while genuinely respecting the surrounding context, building typologies and urban grain rather than imposing a generic housing scheme.
The Challenge
Our Response
The design proposal is grounded in a close reading of the site: its context, surrounding building typologies, urban grain and massing. This approach resulted in a deceptively simple and legible site plan, where the edges of the development respect the existing building lines, particularly along Wellington Road itself, including stepping the development back to meet the existing dwellings to the west.
