In 2019 we were commissioned to create an Urban Design Framework (UDF) to guide substantial and long‑term improvements for the Broadwater Farm Estate in Haringey, North London. Originally built in the late 1960s, Broadwater has undergone numerous refurbishments and alterations over the past five decades. Together with the estate’s original design, these changes have created an urban environment which is not serving the present community well.
Working with the local community, our work seeks to establish a holistic design for the physical repair of the estate. Our Urban Design Framework (UDF) is being driven by seven core principles that have been agreed with residents; Movement, Public realm, Ground Floor Activity, Character, Housing, Legacy and Sustainability. This process has kick‑started and directed wider estate improvements and will function as a catalyst for future change.
Alongside establishing principles for neighbourhood change, our more localised estate designs have focused on the heart of the estate and the redevelopment of the Tangmere and Northolt sites. In our redesigns, we have challenged the estate’s car‑dominated street hierarchy, with a collection of buildings configured to create landscaped courtyards and civic spaces which all residents can use. To unite the neighbourhood, a diagonal pedestrian link which partly follows the culverted River Moselle beneath the site is planned through the estate, which will also forge a better relationship with Lordship Recreation Ground to the west.
Responding to the original design’s placement of parking at street level, with homes raised at first floor, a major part of our work has been to create a more active relationship with ground floor, and make the public realm feel safer and more enjoyable to inhabit. Throughout the neighbourhood, shops and local services are proposed at key points to be within a 15 minute walk of all homes.
To achieve an estate renewal strategy that is carbon conscious and cost‑effective, our design includes the substantial retrofit of original estate buildings. This work is being piloted across two sites, Martlesham and Rochford in retrofit programmes which will establish guidelines for wider housing refurbishments.
The project has also focused on creating opportunities for residents which extend beyond the built environment. Since the start, young estate residents have collaborated as creative freelancers with Beyond the Box Consultancy to create co‑design engagement events. From this process the ‘Lost Blocks Collective’ has been born, a group who are now hosting a podcast series to share their personal stories with a mission to create a new and more diverse narrative for Broadwater Farm.