Peabody, one of the oldest and largest housing providers in London, organised a competition looking for Architects to design schemes for up to 20 homes. Entrants were asked to develop a proposal for a complex site on Peabody’s portfolio. As a respected charity and a renown client for good-quality development the competition attracted over 300 entries.

Our proposal replaced a long row of redundant garages near Victoria Park with a set of carefully planned houses and flats. By ‘completing the street’ the design created a new low-rise neighbourhood to bring life to a dark, forgotten backstreet. On this narrow, north-facing site we re-imagined the standard semi-detached house as pairs of mews-style dwellings benefiting from gardens to one side, with small rear courtyards to admit warming south light. A brick street-frontage, with prominent gable roofs, makes for a robust, buildable and homely aspect which connects the new development with the surrounding traditional housing stock.

The design was praised for offering affordable, practical, desirable homes to London Housing Design Guide standards. It reached the final Peabody shortlist and was published in the Guardian Architecture Blog.