Privately funded social housing
AHMM for Borough of Barking and Dagenham
Contract value: £35m. GIA: 24,024m2
This clear, simple masterplan creates a series of streets and spaces which makes a new place where previously the soulless Lintons Estate cut a hole in the urban fabric. This scheme is the first totally privately funded affordable social housing scheme in the UK, and provides a generous family friendly mix of mews houses clad in variegated brickwork and smaller units in apartment buildings.
With slightly fewer units than the original housing estate, it provides significantly more habitable rooms, demonstrating a strong commitment to family housing. The houses and ground floor duplex apartments have back gardens, reflecting a traditional London street pattern and creating opportunities for social interaction.
The jury believes the overriding achievement of this scheme is the delivery of privately funded social housing in a high-density, low-rise set of streets and gardens, replacing a deteriorating estate with a new urban fabric meaningfully connected to its neighbourhood.
See other winners in the RIBA Regional Awards 2015 – London