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Spread across six very different sites in London’s Greenwich, Bell Phillips Architects has imaginatively repurposed a series of old, underused garage plots for housing for the elderly, freeing up larger public housing stock for families and bringing life to these once-dead backwaters

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We all know London has a severe housing shortage. It is predicted that by 2030 1.5 million people – almost the population of Birmingham – will be added to the 8.5 million people already living in the capital. That means at least 40,000 new homes a year over the next 20 years will be needed to house London’s growing population. At the same time, Londoners are working and living longer, with the number of over-60s projected to grow rapidly, by nearly 50 per cent, in that time, according to the report Ageing London from Mayor’s Design Advisory Group. 

It is clear that architects, designers, councils and developers need to work together to come up with more creative ways to house the elderly, allowing them to downsize into innovative, new, urban models in the capital without isolating them from the community. Many older Londoners, for instance, are sitting on bigger, inflexible properties, unsuitable to their changing needs and lifestyles. 

Setting a precedent, Bell Phillips Architects’ project for the Royal Borough of Greenwich – Highly Commended in the Blueprint Awards (see page 123) – has unlocked six underused infill sites previously occupied by neglected, run-down garages to provide 22 spacious, single-storey homes. Designated for social rent for the over-60s, the project provides much-needed, purpose-built accommodation, enabling them to live independently in their homes for longer, while freeing up existing social housing stock for larger families. 

‘These garages had become surplus to requirements because they were too small to accommodate people’s needs these days. We’re all familiar with these sites at the back of housing blocks where no one really goes — not well overlooked, they become hives of antisocial behaviour,’ explains project architect John Lineen. ‘Councils are basically running out of other options [for new housing]. Infill sites are more expensive to develop because there’s so many constraints, so these sites were an inspired  choice by Greenwich.’

The six sites, each very different contextually, required a modular, two-bedroom design solution that could be easily shoehorned in across the borough. On Coldbath Street, for example, units are positioned on a steep hill overshadowed by a 10-storey block of flats; Raven’s Way comprises a row of six homes hidden behind a cluster of five-storey mansion blocks and a playing field, while Walnut Tree Road sits in a conservation area neighboured by two-storey Victorian terraced houses.

‘The challenge was to come up with a repeatable unit plan,’ says Lineen. ‘There was a big collection of things influencing them from the various contexts. We had to try and filter those out and find commonalities to fold them into the final thing and make them all identical.’

Each long, rectangular unit features a zinc-clad monopitch roof, giving the homes their distinctive saw-tooth profile. Hooded clerestory windows funnel light deep into the centre of the plan, while giving a generous sense of space to what is essentially a bungalow. In the more overlooked sites, they also help protect residents’ privacy without blocking out daylight.

Raven’s Way, Greenwich. The only noticeable difference across the sites is the use of brick - here is it a darker Oakfield brick - to blend the new homes into their surroundings. Image Credit: Edmund Sumner

Says Lineen: ‘At Coldbath Street, they’re very much overlooked and it’s all about the roofscape. There’s a forest of TV aerials, chimney pots and different types of roofs, and then you have our new development blending into the background. The roof ties it in quite nicely, but marks them out as being really different through the use of zinc.’ The only noticeable difference across the sites is the use of brick — London weathered yellow for three sites and a much darker Oakfield brick for the others — intended to help fuse the homes into their surroundings.

Sketch for Raven’s Way

Internally, the homes, at 90 sq m, go beyond London’s space standards and feel light and airy. This is in part down to Greenwich’s Wheelchair Housing Design Guide, which encourages roomier footprints to allow spaces that are easier for older or disabled occupants to manage and in turn reduce strain on local care facilities. Corridors have been kept to a minimum to create a largely open-plan layout and ease circulation.

Inside one of the long, rectangular units that at 90 sq m exceed London’s space standards

A wide galley kitchen is positioned in the centre of the plan, neatly arranged with built-in storage for the riser and meters, and a small hallway to the bathroom, freeing up space for two flexible living spaces at either end ‘If it wasn’t for fire regulations we would have had no corridors at all,’ says Lineen.

A modular two-bedroom design was arrived at that could be used across the borough. Each has a zinc-clad, saw-tooth profile and deep-set windows: here in a row of six homes in Coldbath Street

During the process Bell Phillips also worked with occupational therapists from the council to refine the finer details of the design and future-proof the homes, for example, reducing thresholds between the interior and exterior to the gardens for level access and reinforcing the timber frame with plywood so that handrails can be fixed on to the interior walls at a later date if needed.

A modular two-bedroom design was arrived at that could be used across the borough. Each has a zinc-clad, saw-tooth profile and deep-set windows: here in a row of six homes in Coldbath Street

Innovative housing that gives older people a sense of individuality and dignity has in the past been focused in the private sector for the rich and wealthy. Here is a local authority using a bit of ingenuity and creativity to give a new lease of life to not only these previously underused backwaters of the city but also to the older people who now call them home.