Architect
RHM Architects
Developer
Urban Splash
Maritime Housing Association
Contractor
Urban Splash Build
Planning Authority
Liverpool City Council
Click any image for a larger view
Could there ever have been a public housing project where the design brief was more closely tailored to the needs of individual households than this one? Ten families, some going back three generations on the same site, with a diversity of composition ranging from three grown men, a family with three small children and an 80 year-old woman. But all share a lifetime's experience of living in flats on the site, and a desire to retain their community and guard their privacy.
Add to this a challenging site in the centre of Liverpool, backing on to a two-storey car park serving the new 700-plus dwelling Tribeca redevelopment (see also pages 66-67), and the ingenuity of the competition winners - chosen by the residents - must have been sorely tested. Effectively, these could only be single aspect dwellings. So the architects have developed what amounts to a three-storey patio house, with a private garden at ground floor level, and a generous sun-trap patio on the first floor.
Within the dwellings there is a wide variation in plans, reflected in the swaying silhouette of the top floor zinc-clad roofs. In some, the lofts remain unsubdivided to give playspace under the eaves for small children. In another, a large cupboard boasts a window, so that it can be used as a tiny sleeping space for visiting grandchildren. And stairs change location depending on whether residents want the option of a first floor living room or an en-suite bathroom in the future.
The residents' brief has been met. The community is retained - the density of 111 homes to the hectare ensures this - and privacy is safeguarded when each home has its ground floor front door to the street, and not one but two private open spaces. More, the flexibility offered by the basic shell shows that it is possible to offer public sector tenants the choice of lifestyle previously only (theoretically) available to those buying their own homes.
Restrictive on future lettings? Surely not. A Housing Association like Maritime will always have enough applicants to take advantage of the range of choice which these houses offer. 'Consultation', 'community', 'privacy', concepts to which, too often, only lip-service is paid. But here they have become design generators.