Mountbatten View is selected for the 78th Housing Design Awards shortlist and detailed on HDAs website!
We are delighted this central Hemel Hempstead 100% social housing development for Dacorum Borough Council constructed by Bugler Developments is recognised alongside 27 other completed schemes. The shortlisted schemes are endorsed by MHCLG’s recent PPG on Design and Placemaking as a vital resource. Looking forward to welcoming the judges in May when the marguerite daisies should be in flower!
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.
The design includes generous living spaces and balconies to each apartment, six ground floor apartments for wheelchair users, adequate parking with electric vehicle (EV) chargers, “fabric first” approach, triple glazing, communal air source heat pumps (ASHPs), sustainable drainage systems (SuDS), woodland enhancement and habitat creation.
