Mountbatten View is part of an ambitious housing programme undertaken by Dacorum Borough Council.

The prominent (0.75 hectare) site in Hemel Hempstead was acquired from Homes England and sits between St Albans Road and Paradise Fields established open landscape. Studio Partington’s Architects’ Journal competition-winning design provides 58 affordable (all social rent) one and two bed apartments in the town centre for those in greatest need – some residents moved out of temporary accommodation.

Three pavilion buildings negotiate the steeply sloping site with building heights reflecting the change in level across the site. The buildings are of similar volume and character and use a limited palette of resilient materials creating a clear identity in contrast to their leafy backdrop. The new homes are integrated by nourishing and diverse communal landscape areas designed with The Environment Partnership (habitat garden, courtyard garden, woodland walk, wildflower meadow and timber play features) and strong connections to the town centre and adjacent meadow (characterised by an open boundary to the north).

The buildings have an expressed frame with light-coloured textured brick infill and setback top floors, conceived as “rooftop lanterns”, with external lighting between paired gold-coloured aluminium fins that glow at night, creating a civic character for a development viewed prominently as a gateway into Hemel Hempstead from St Albans arterial road.