The Ocean Estate was one of the country’s most deprived neighbourhoods when developers were invited to bid for the site, and working with Bellway Homes and East Thames Housing Group, we worked up proposals to refurbish 1,200 existing homes, deliver over 1,000 new homes and enhance the landscape. We were appointed on the strength of our bid and tasked with securing planning consent within just 29 weeks to meet HCA funding deadlines.

Existing monolith housing blocks have made way for smaller buildings to recreate a more traditional street pattern, designed around central courtyards with variation in scale and materials to respond appropriately to the context. The new buildings carefully integrate a variety of tenures and do not distinguish between each. Variation in bricks and balconies responds to the styles of neighbouring architecture, whilst colour adds vibrancy and accent. We appointed a local artist, Henna Nadeem, to develop a concept that could be integrated within the regeneration. She abstracted elaborate textile patterns from the area’s heritage, using the colour palette within the architecture, and fused these into the core circulation space design.