Planning Permission has been granted for BFF’s scheme for 40 new units on the Parkview Estate for the London Borough of Islington. The scheme consists of six new residential buildings inserted within the estate and includes extensive new landscaping and improvements to community facilities. The new housing has been achieved without the need to demolish any existing housing and will lead to an overall increase in the amount of green space on the estate. Members voted unanimously in support of the scheme, which was praised for its high quality design and sympathetic response to the conservation area.
The current estate consists of several post-war era residential buildings, arranged around large central car parks and along an estate road on the rear boundary of the site. The estate has a relatively low density for the area and includes several dilapidated and underused sheds, stores and other areas, which has presented an opportunity to provide new residential accommodation and improved landscaping and community facilities.
The proposals consist of six new residential buildings ranging in size from the smallest, a pair of two-bedroom apartments in a new two-storey building, up to the largest, a block of 14 apartments of various sizes, yielding a total of 40 new units. In addition to the new homes, the excessive parking areas have been rationalised so that the parking is situated closer to the majority of entrances, freeing up space in the central areas for new extensive community gardens and children’s play areas.
The proposals also include new and improved refuse and recycling areas, improved bicycle stores and general stores, a new community space at the base of one of the new blocks and extensive new landscaping throughout.
Burrell Foley Fischer have long advocated the infilling of areas of underused land on local authority sites, especially where these areas create security and privacy problems and are open to abuse due to poor definition of public and private space. This has been achieved at the Parkview Estate without demolition or a net loss of green space, through a process of extensive consultation and thoughtful, creative design. The scheme is the latest in a succession of infill housing designed by BFF for the London Borough of Islington over the past decade.
