Lovedon Fields

by John Pardey Architects

Client HAB Housing Ltd

Awards RIBA South Award 2022, RIBA National Award 2022 (sponsored by Forterra)

Lovedon Fields was part of the client’s broader objective to achieve a step-change in the design quality that is expected of and delivered by rural housing developments and in the hard-nosed commercial context of mass housing, it is no mean feat to have achieved as much as it has.

There are many good basic ingredients in the mix - mixed tenure including 40% affordable dwellings and shared ownership; a mixture of apartments, terraces and detached houses, including some lifetime homes; timber frame structure; and plenty of green public space.

The overall layout is structured around a street and a triangular green and, combined with the variation of house types and a gently sloping site, it creates a good balance of order and informality, in contrast to some of the other developments nearby. Unusually, about two-thirds of the site is conceived as a wildflower meadow with integrated landscaping including mixed native hedging.

In terms of individual house designs, external massing and composition are generally simple and unfussy without being stark, and the mixture of a reasonably lively buff/grey brick with both weathered and black-stained timber cladding is well-judged. Several house types incorporate balconies that address public spaces and a successful feature on some of the houses is the wide timber-slatted garage that forms part of a continuous edge to the street and, at first floor, provides a generous terrace that looks both ways, onto the street at the front as well into the back garden and to open land beyond.

It was great to hear from the project architect that the scheme has motivated another housing developer to appoint the same practice.

Internal area 5,650.00 m²

Contractor In Liquidation

Landscape Architects BD Landscape

Structural Engineers Clark Bond

Ecology Peach Ecology

Environmental / M&E Engineers Fabric Building Physics