Burneside Residential Development Masterplan and Design statement
According to the competition brief, the primary challenge is how to attract younger generation to live in the rural area, apart from possibly lower housing prices.
The other challenge is how to achieve an overall high-quality residential environment under a slightly-higher-than-average development density required by the Brief, taking the context that most UIK suburban have only 35-40 family per hector development density.
A possible response to both challenges might be to build a tighter knitted, closer related neighbourhood with communal living element (rather than isolated rural living), where residents can enjoy social interacting, home working and self-organised family assistance (with domestic work or even children-minding). It could even beneficial to wider community using its own facility resources.
Main Features
- To group/couple terrace houses into clusters, accumulating otherwise fragmental land resources together for larger-than-average outdoor elements, such as a MUGA, an onsite children’s play area, patches of greens, outdoor activity eg. barbecue etc;
- Under-croft parking and either partially planted roof or decked roof with mobile planting,
- Located at a higher level, the secured back gardens fostering communication between immediate neighbours, and acting as an alternative fire escape route to enable a more open interior configuration for the houses; Decked roof of communal parking can enable better management of surface run-off and reuse of rainwater, while replacing otherwise exposed vehicle circulation/road areas;
- As a balance, open front-yards can be planned for easier accessibility for clients and visitors to home-work /SOHO, and for neighbourhood social connection;
- One commune kitchen is proposed on the ground level at the corner of each cluster, activating the social life along the main private road;
- a drop-back security line is drawn off the Holmes Houses/Burneside Road, along which some road-side ground floor habitable spaces can be used for employment/business/office, more approachable for wider community.
- Extended gable with fenestration forms an extinction architectural language while picks up profile of some large barns. Those gables facing the railway tracks to achieve better outdoor acoustic quality for the high-level private gardens;
- 3-4 units Terrace house with regular envelope possible to achieve overall better thermal performance and energy efficiency.
- Cladding Material: natural stone, timber boarding, artificial slit roofing.
Design Team: Jing Wu, Jason Norris, Ovidija Zemaityte
Job Stage: RIBA accredited competition