New Homes for New Charter Housing Group

TADW are pleased to announce the completion by Seddon Construction of ten houses and eleven flats for New Charter Housing Group.  The Cotton Street East development in the centre of Ashton, was designed to respond to very difficult site conditions – specifically a plot width of less than 30m, coupled with overbearing existing elevations on the surrounding streets. 

To address these issues a saw-tooth footprint was adopted, allowing the resulting house type to turn its primary windows down the street rather than across it.  It also manages to avoid having any habitable windows on the rear elevations thereby allowing the maximum potential of the site to be realised. 

The houses are equally innovative internally as the client was keen to incorporate unusual features such as double height spaces and window seats.  Care was also taken to orientate the downstairs WC/utility room in such a way that it didn’t intrude upon the open plan kitchen and living room space.

With such a narrow site it was obviously difficult to provide any substantial amenity space, so instead the houses benefit from a paved patio area, reminiscent of that which would have been found on the Victorian terraces that once occupied the site.  Alongside this we have also been able to incorporate secure parking for two cars.  However the impact of all this hard landscaping is softened by the green roofs provided to the single storey outriggers at the rear of the properties.

The house type has proved to be both successful and flexible, such that we are now using variants of the basic design with more conventional rectilinear footprints and with different window configurations across the region.