Working alongside the client, Oakgate developments, and the future occupier Casa by Moda, our brief was to develop a proposal for circa 130 residential units on a brownfield site adjacent to the Community stadium. The client required a mix of 1 and 2 bed apartments with associated parking and internal and external amenity space.

Although in a prime location for residential the site had inherent challenges due to its early adopter status. The site is situated opposite one of the entrances into the leisure centre and is on a key route for access to the community stadium, as such we had to balance the opportunity of being able to connect with these community facilities whilst also providing private space and outlook for the residents. The Site is bounded to the east and west by surface car parking and to the north by commercial units, we developed a feasibility masterplan to show how our site would develop and interact with a future residential community. Initially our site would have to respond to the current surroundings so we developed a three sided courtyard block to give visual and physical amenity to the centre of the site and locate communal and amenity space at ground floor to the perimeter where the aspect is most challenging.

We have developed a three sided courtyard block, this shape was chosen to respond to the immediate and wider context. At ground floor, the footprint responds to the primary pedestrian and vehicular route and presents as two elegant, slender wings. The courtyard space interacts with the public pedestrian route and provides residential access from the main pedestrian thoroughfare. The east west orientation of the two wings maximises daylight and views across York, the rear wing looks into the south facing courtyard and at higher level out over York.

The scale of the building responds to the height and mass of the community facilities and allows for the kind of high density residential living appropriate for such a well connected and vibrant location.