The Aylesbury Estate in south London was in desperate need of regeneration in the late 90s, when we were commissioned to develop a mini masterplan for one part of the estate. We carried out workshops with the London Borough of Southwark, residents and local businesses to explore the various options for improvement. Our approach was to demolish the existing stock and build better housing in its place, while reintroducing the traditional, legible streets that had been lost when the estate was built in the 1960s.

This new grid of streets has been created by a series of new, smaller buildings which line these new routes. We reduced heights and doubled density by creating smaller building footprints with central courtyards, an approach which meant a range of homes could be provided, all with access to private amenity. We tested internal planning extensively to ensure the new homes would comfortably accommodate residents’ needs and constructed a full size show home to exhibit different layout options, which we put to a vote before integrating peoples’ preferred choices into the housing.