Winner: 1st Prize 'Castle Vale Birmingham'. Europan 4 1996.
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The objective was to use the programme of new buildings to solve the problems inherent on the site with respect to the existing tower blocks and the fragmented community.

The blocks, “adrift” in the landscape, were paired. The front and back blocks were to form a community and share a protected entrance from Farnborough Road. The southerly block was linked to the street by an inhabited “pier” of sheltered accommodation which also defined protected gardens for the residents.

The bases of the blocks and individual flats were redesigned and new over-cladding provided efficient environmental control.

Farnborough Road itself was to be re-energized with new housing and amenities reclaiming and reinforcing the edge of the suburb like a ‘sea wall’, giving a shared sense of place for the entire community whilst controlling the seepage of the suburb into the landscape.