A Grim Estate Transformed into a Trim Village
22 July 2005 -
This is what judges said of the Oakridge Village development in Basingstoke. The transformation of the area was achieved by a winning partnership approach, led by Sentinel Housing Group, in conjunction with Basingstoke Borough Council, HTA Architects and the local community. The endeavours of Sentinel and its partners have been awarded, with the Oakridge project winning the top Housing Design Award for Affordable Housing for their Oakridge Village development at the National Housing Design Awards.
Before the development nobody wanted to live in Oakridge, which was made up of 148 maisonette blocks. Two years later, the innovative design, along with the new village and community amenities, resulted in nearly 800 local people queuing to apply to move into 50 of the newly completed homes for rent.
Martin Nurse, Chief Executive of Sentinel said,"This is the top Housing Design Award for new affordable homes and we are delighted to receive it" he added, "We will continue to listen to residents to continue the success of the scheme".
Oakridge Village has seen double-banked maisonette blocks replaced with a village green, in front of a striking new community building, accommodating a health centre and hall space for social community functions. A new village High Sreet, complete with 5 new shops, and three new recreational areas develops a clear sense of place for the community. The number of homes have been doubled with 299 new homes, many of them large family houses for rent, or sale on a low cost home ownership basis.
Sir Duncan Michael, Chair of the Housing Corporation’s Investment Committee, said: "The standard of entries was again very high, but the judging panel were unanimous in their appreciation for the way in which Oakridge Village has overcome space and density issues through clever design, careful planning and the use of Modern Methods of Construction".
The Corporation judging panel also commended the space standards in both rented and key worker units, as well as the "invisible tenure" approach which means that affordable housing is indistinguishable from the homes for private sale.
Investing in our homes and neighbourhoods to provide good places to live.