Project?            

The 50 hectares site was developed as a Corporate Business Park in the 1980’s. It offers great potential for a mixed-use development, and the design options include either the retention and enhancement of the  main corporate building or its demolition, with appropriate phasing to enhance existing businesses offer as well as space for new residential accommodation.

The Masterplan creates a vibrant waterside community centered on the existing lake and new dock spaces, offering water-based leisure activities. Surrounded by a green buffer of new trees, the development will be set-back from the perimeter and shielded from the road. This pedestrian-friendly neighbourhood will benefit from sustainable transportation as well as traditional vehicular mobility.

Waterhood aims to create a balance of urban and rural: divided into a vibrant mix of resilient housing typologies, the layout enables a reasonably high level of development whilst maintaining a more intimate and village feel. The proposed scheme adopts a holistic approach to sustainability and well-being with a non-defensive planning strategy that locates architectural housing types according to flood risk: floating; amphibious; elevated; resilient and even traditional to correspond with diminishing flood risk.  The swale weaving across the scheme is not only a landscaping feature but is also a Sustainable Urban Drainage (SuDs) feature. “Making Space for Water” through green infrastructure forms an integral part of the masterplan.

Responsibilities?

Skills :  Assess the client’s brief and existing site, propose overall design iterations to match the desired density of units/hectare and phasing, implement Baca design principles (blue/green infrastructure, flood-resilience elements...), integrate the client’s comments in the evolution of the design, combine a diversity of architectural typologies and sustainable principles to enhance the site’s opportunities, demonstrate methodology, organisation and autonomy in the design process, deliver 2 well-received design options to the client. 

Production : Design options and constraints  maps  (skteches & 2d), 3d modelling of the massing, design reports to the client,  project process document for the Baca team. 

- Sketchup, Vectorworks, Adobe Suite, Hand sketching