The brief was to unlock the under-used land to the rear of Beech Avenue, creating a new pocket development which enhances the landscaping to improve biodiversity and off-street parking space for the residents. The intent is that the design should; bring positive development to the area, respect surrounding properties and tie into the character of the existing street-scape.

One of the key considerations for the scheme was the requirement for flood resilient design which has a negligible impact on the flood zone due to the site’s proximity to Holgate Beck. In order to meet these requirements, the plan makes use of split levels that allow the carefully designed living spaces to be raised to a datum that is out with the floodplain. Hit and miss brickwork was then implemented at the lower levels to allow flood water to pass through the building without significantly displacing the water volume.

On top of these constraints from the floodplain, ensuring the proposal was adequately offset from an existing sewer which currently occupies the site while also minimally impacting the existing, onlooking property became crucial factors in the design of the scheme. As the existing property’s primary living spaces are orientated toward the main road, implementing a ‘green buffer’ between the existing and proposed schemes toward the rear allows for a maintenance of visual privacy alongside acoustic mitigation.

As a primary factor for the design of the terraces was sensitivity to the surrounding context the massing of the proposal is designed to be read as a two-storey property with a half storey in the roof- which ties in with height of neighbouring properties.

Repetition and rhythm through placement of dormers, terraces and deep-set brick reveal windows allows for an introduction of push and pull to break up the solidity of the façade and soften the visual impact from street level.

The use of brick as the sole material for the scheme allows the proposal to complement the surrounding context and harmonises with the flood resilient technique of using hit and miss blockwork. This hit and miss style has been applied to the terrace as a design feature to allow for harmonisation between the upper and lower levels of the terrace. This creates a perforated visual buffer to enhance the privacy of the terrace on the primary façade. Soldier coursing forms horizontal banding which as previously mentioned picks up on datums from historic surrounding precedents, they also act to ground the scheme by providing a sense of horizontality.

The introduction of the accent sage green detailing enhances the contemporary feeling to the properties and again draws influence from the playful use of colour in the painted doors along Beech Avenue.