Carpenters Estate Regeneration
Stratford, London
London’s largest and most ambitious estate regeneration and restoration scheme – Carpenters Estate next to Stratford station – has been given the green light at planning committee.
The outline application provides for up to 2,022 high quality and sustainable homes based on a resident-led masterplan that secured high levels of turnout and approval at ballot. A further 136 homes within the scheme at James Riley Point have already been approved. In total 50% of the homes are for social rent. The plans also include 10,000 sq m of commercial space and a wide range of community, education and amenity uses to help meet residents’ wishes for ‘a real piece of London’.
They have been brought forward by Newham Council’s wholly owned development company Populo and approved by the London Legacy Development Corporation.
Tibbalds led the multidisciplinary project team and was planning consultant for the project for the Tibbalds CampbellReith JV. Metropolitan Workshop and Proctor & Matthews Architects worked together on the masterplan. LDA Design is the landscape architect. make:good led on extensive local engagement.
The new masterplan has been based, from the outset, on community feedback. Streets and spaces are prioritised. At its centre is a new neighbourhood park, with lower rise apartment buildings, houses and maisonettes served by intimate mews streets and communal courtyards radiating out, allowing as much light as possible. Taller mixed-use buildings, with commercial and community uses on the ground floors and apartments were then located at the site’s outer edges, along major arterial routes and close to the trainline, contributing to overall viability and deliverability.
Two of the original tower blocks, James Riley Point and Lund Point, are being retained and retrofitted for housing to high standards of sustainability. Work on James Riley Point is aiming to start in later this year. A range of meanwhile uses is also planned for economic and social benefit as the development process moves forward.
In total over £1 billion will be invested in restoring the estate and creating new homes through phased plans that will be delivered over the next 15-20 years.
Team: Tibbalds Planning & Urban Design (Lead Consultant & Planning) / Metropolitan Workshop & PMA (Masterplan & Plot Architects) / Mott MacDonald (Client Project Management and QS) / make:good (Community Engagement) / Campbell Reith (Structures, Civils & Transport) / XCO2 (Sustainability & Environment) / LDA Design (Landscape) / Phil Jones Associates (Transport & Movement) / Plan A (Design Management ) / PRD (Community Wealth Building)
Status: RIBA 0-2 (Outline Planning Application)
"Submitting the outline masterplan is a demonstration of our commitment to transforming the estate into a vibrant community and neighbourhood instead of a ghost town languishing because of historical neglect. With £1billion of investment in the Carpenters Estate, we are showing the scale of my administration’s ambition for our residents."
A Place for People
Residents have been waiting too long to see investment and improvements in their homes and across the estate. In 2019, Metropolitan Workshop and Proctor Matthews Architects were appointed to carry out initial consultation, with the aim to understand the residents’ aspirations for Carpenters. Several options were explored and presented to residents during a series of workshops. At the end of the workshops, residents were asked to vote on their preferred option. The voting results and residents asks went on to inform the Residents Brief. The Residents Brief underpins the masterplan principles and has guided ongoing dialogue between residents and the design team.
To embed the design within the neighbourhood, engagement consultant Make:Good, the design team and Populo set up a dedicated community space in the heart of Carpenters. The Dovetail has been used as a base for engagement events over the last two years, but it has also become a key space supporting the social value of Carpenters. Through a dedicated and targeted programme of events, the Dovetail has become a safe, familiar and friendly space for all Carpenters residents.
We are proud to have supported the residents of the estate in bringing forward such ambitious and well considered plans for the area. We believe that by working so closely with residents we have brought to life residents expectations and produced a masterplan which is quite unique to the site and a design that exceeds stakeholders expectations.
The success of working with residents on this project has contributed greatly to our in practice ethos and was a key point of reference in our research paper Prospects:People Powered Places. People Powered Places aims to enhance the rigour we bring to community engagement in planning and housing. The result of this process, People Powered Places: a practical guide to community engagement. Through review sessions facilitated by The Glass-House Community Led Design, community representatives have become active partners in the development of a series of principles and recommendations toward more meaningful community engagement.
