The first phase comprises a 7500 sqm foodstore at ground level over a basement car park. Above the foodstore, 179 new homes were created around the perimeter of a large, shared, landscaped garden. The scheme also includes a new Energy Centre, which will provide heating and hot water for the whole of the masterplan area.

The site mediates between the hostile environment of the A13 flyover and a new Town Place which forms part of the public realm created as part of the wider masterplan. The key challenge of the site was how to mitigate the environmental impact of the A13 flyover. In response to the noise and pollution, we created a terrace of lightweight single aspect town houses that contained the courtyard and provided protection from the noise and pollution of the flyover.

The architectural design seeks to form a coherent urban block creating an active urban street frontage to the new Town Place and Rathbone Street with a more abstract sculptural approach to the A13. To avoid presenting a blank facade to this very visible of elevations, we developed an eye catching lattice frame which follows the line of the flyover and is designed to take planting and lighting and to provide some visual animation to this face of the building.