lake and orchard residences, riccall

A peaceful suburban scene with modern brick houses surrounded by trees and greenery, featuring a woman walking a dog and a family outside.

A sensitive scheme for 11 new dwellings on the site of the former Lake & Orchard Nursing home, on the outskirts of Riccall.

Situated on a rural site on the banks of the River Ouse, this landscape led proposal draws on the character of its neighbouring village, demonstrating a contextual response to its surroundings, creating a development which enhances and improves its setting, creating safe, accessible, carefully designed living spaces.

Team: Neil Brown, Emma Croyle

Similar projects: george hudson street, heavitree road, kathryn avenue

A site plan map of a residential area including 11 houses, a visitor parking area, and surrounding natural features like a river, trees, and a pond.
Map showing the locations of Kelfield and Riccall, with a central structure, roads, and concentric circles indicating 5, 10, and 15-minute walk distances.
Modern building with brick and wood exterior, large glass windows, and a woman walking along sidewalk.
A hand-drawn landscape plan featuring a garden in the center, surrounded by several structures and pathways, with trees along the perimeter.
Hand-drawn landscape plan with trees, pathways, and rectangular buildings.
A hand-drawn site plan featuring multiple buildings, pathways, trees, and landscaped areas arranged in a planned layout.
Hand-drawn landscape design plan featuring a central garden labeled 'GARDEN', pathways, shaded areas, and surrounding trees and bushes.
Series of technical isometric drawings showing steps to modify a rectangular box, including adding a side panel, an end section, and a cut-out on the top surface.
Elevation view of a row of modern houses with brick facades, large windows, and pitched roofs, set in a residential neighborhood.

  • The brief was to reuse the existing site to create a contemporary and group of houses. With opportunities to reuse the existing building, create connections to an existing footpath along the River Ouse, and enhance the surrounding landscape.

  • Given its proximity to the river, a key challenge was to address the possibility of flooding on the site and ensure that all new dwellings would be flood resilient, now and in the future. The existing building was set below the 1:100 year event + climate change level which restricted the opportunities to reuse the existing building.

    The site also includes a number of Grade A and B trees which the design sought to retain as much as possible.

  • After initial exploration of whole or partial reuse of the existing building, given the constraints in terms of flooding it was decided to pursue an entire new build scheme. The key concept was to arrange new dwellings around a village green which would provide amenity for the residents and biodiversity for the site as well as linking back to the character of the neighbouring village of Riccall.

    Given the site’s rural setting, the architecture and materiality of the proposal was key to create a design with a specific sense of place, that was appropriate to its setting. Studies were undertaken of local vernacular architecture and agricultural buildings to inform the massing and materiality of the scheme, resulting in simple built forms with natural materials, used sensitively to create a coherent family of dwelling types with a subtle variation across the site.