CABE awards gold to three housing projects

Three housing schemes in Somerset, Worcestershire and London have been awarded Gold in Cabe’s Building for Life Awards. A further six schemes achieved Cabe’s silver standard.

The winners were Chase Homes’ The Russels in Worcestershire by Mike Lapworth Architects; South West Eco Homes’ Great Bow Yard in Somerset by Treglown Architects and Berkeley Homes’ Empire Square in London by Rolfe Judd Architects.

Judges said The Russells was “a great piece of urbanism” and praised its “flexible meeting space.” The Great Bow Yard in Somerset was hailed as “a healthy place with healthy material” while Empire Square was praised for having “absolutely fantastic” specification.

The awards are designed to highlight the Building for Life criteria, which Cabe says will ensure high housing design standards.

The silver standard winners were:

• Waterstone Park, Greenhithe, Kent
• Visage and Swiss Cottage Cultural Centre, Swiss Cottage, London
• The Village, St Austell, Cornwall
• The Manor, Lower Earley, Reading
• St James Homes and John Thompson & Partners
• Allerton Bywater (Area 3B), West Yorkshire
• Upton (Phase 1, SiteA), Northampton

CABE is calling the government to make Building for Life a national standard against which design quality is measured in the planning system.

English Partnerships, the Housing Corporation and some local authorities already use the standard and will give planning approval if the criteria is met.

Wayne Hemingway, chair of Building for Life, said: “We have got to stop building the slums of tomorrow. Making Building for Life a benchmark standard in the planning process will mean that over seven million people could live in homes and neighbourhoods which they can be proud of.”