Brook Drive, Bracknell, 1973

This fine wooded site on the edge of the Bracknell New Town designated area had been overlooked for development in the spread of low-rise two-storey development. In 1973 it was considered possible to build smaller dwellings on the site without losing most of the fine trees and the site was offered to London & Quadrant Housing Trust.

The brief was for fair rent housing with a high proportion of one bedroom, two person units including some two person dwellings at ground level for the elderly.

The solution was to concentrate the units into a series of eight cluster blocks of two designs, four containing 12 flats and four containing 16. This enabled the preservation of a large number of the fine Scots Pines growing on the site while the height and density of the existing trees ensured the easy absorption of this scale of building into the landscape.

The arrangement produced 112 units at a density of 122 bedspaces per hectare. Half of the units are one bedroom flats with 36 two bed flats or maisonettes and 20 bedsitting room flats.

The four-storey blocks contain flats on the first two floors with maisonettes above. Each living room opens out on to its own substantial and sunny terrace as the majority of the flats face south, the remainder east and west. This was felt to be an essentially economical approach and allowed the provision of balconies to most dwellings and brick enclosed patios to ground floor flats.

The blocks were carefully sited to maximise the effect of living in wooded surroundings both within the site and by the outlook onto wooded areas to the south. The ground coverage of the buildings and car parking has been reduced to the minimum to retain the woodland character.

The project is built in load-bearing brickwork with concrete party floors — the brick a dark Sussex multi-stock facing with dark mortar. Window frames are a mixture of steel section frames built directly into the brickwork and timber frames with steel opening lights. The blocks have low pitched roofs behind low parapets and the balconies and the terraces are integrated into the overall form of the building.