October 2023
Drawing Credit: Jessica Gabriel, MAA Part I Architectural Assistant
MAA have worked successfully in the residential sector for over 25 years. Our projects include bespoke luxury homes, large scale residential developments for prominent housebuilders, partnering with affordable housing operators to provide much needed homes for lower incomes households, and smaller scale developments for local developers. We have recently worked on a number of Co-living projects in London. Co-living is a timely solution to the housing crisis that is becoming very prominent in the residential sector. This new way of living, however, comes with its challenges, focussed around the quality and variety of accommodation and provision of the communal space. In our experience, we have seen the residential sector evolve and new typologies emerge, such as Co-living, which respond to socio-economic and cultural shifts and how people are choosing to live/work/play in an urban setting. Conversely, we are also seeing more traditional award-winning housing developments taking place in rural areas, which provide local communities high quality architectural solutions with a mixture of houses, apartments and affordable units enjoying both space and privacy. Two of our current projects, detailed below, demonstrate our expertise in the residential sector, and how we are providing housing and a way of living best suited to the landscape, place and situation of its occupiers.
Broadway, Ealing
Recently awarded Planning Permission, our Broadway project is a new Co-living development on a sustainable car-free site in West London. The scheme comprises 94 self-contained units and features ground and upper floors diversified Co-working and communal use spaces, suited to this contemporary way of living. We have worked closely with our client, Luxgrove Capital Partners, exploring the emerging product, suitable for London’s social and economic environment, whilst drawing on successful nationwide and international precedents. The resulting scheme incorporates limited unit type variations to ensure modularity and a high volume of repetition. The living units exceed policy minimum areas and provide several modes of living by utilising intelligent zoning, combined with bespoke furniture elements. Sustainability has also been a key driver for this project, with Sustainability Consultants SRE advising our mutual client on how to achieve a ‘BREEAM Excellent’ rating. We are proud to be a part of the design team working on this forward thinking project that highlights this exciting new housing typology.
Total building area 4,200 m2 / 45,250 ft2
Co-living GIA 2,360 m2 / 25,430 ft2
Site Area 0.077Ha
Residential units 94
Class Sui-Generis
Alfold Gardens
Currently on site, our Alfold Gardens project is the construction of 56 units (17 of these affordable). The village of Alfold is located on the Surrey/Sussex border just beyond the green belt and Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The award-winning Planning Permission was achieved by JPA Architects and we were instructed by our client, Q Developments, to take the project through construction to completion. The scheme comprises 10 apartments and 46 houses – a combination of terraced, semi-detached and detached homes – as well as the communal access roads and garden spaces. Alfold Gardens is a modern take on the Surrey vernacular. This includes an organic site layout, traditional gabled roof forms, Flemish-bond brickwork and black weatherboard, refined by contemporary details such as the deep window reveals, large format glazing, black aluminium frames and fin balustrading, resulting in an exclusive village feel for its residents. The project is due for completion in early 2025.
Total building area 10,306 m2 / 117,945 ft2
Residential GIA 9,502 m2 / 102,278 ft2
Site Area 2.94 Ha
Residential units 56
Class C3 Residential
Events
Over the summer, we have had teams in the JLL Triathlon, attended ARTIQ Queer Frontiers and enjoyed a day at Goodwood Revival with SLR Consulting. We are looking forward to events in the coming months - let us know if we will see you there.
Housing Summit: Delivering Sustainable Homes at Pace and Price
20th November at NLAFishing with Matt Allchurch
Please email Claire to enquire about a day's fishing on The River Itchen
St George’s Hospital Charity Neuro Appeal
Matt has been busy compiling a charity book Coloured by Water in support of St George's Hospital Charity Neuro Appeal, to be released this November.
For over 30 years Matt has carried a sketch pad, and produced somewhere in the region of 1500 sketches. The book is a selection from his pictorial diary taking you from the Dolomites to Durdle Door, Lyme Regis to La Toura, Venice to Ventnor.