Lancewood Courts - Christchurch
Fast facts
Location: Percival Street, Beckenham, Christchurch
Completed: 2000
Client: Beckenham Community Housing Trust and Christchurch City Council
Design: Common Ground Urban Design & Architecture
Communications: Sustainable Cities Trust
Engineers: City Design, Christchurch
Construction: Armitage Williams
Case study researcher: Mark Tollemache
Key statistics
Site: 1865 m². Living 2 Zone Christchurch City Council District Plan
Dwellings: 11 one bedroom units of approximately 50 m² each
Density: One unit per 169 m² of the site
Budget: $1.4 million including GST, landscaping and consultant fees
Photo:
Entrance to Lancewood Courts.
Photo:
Common open space.
Photo:
Plan view.
Photo:
Public/private interface.
Photo:
Designed for walking.
Introduction
Lancewood Courts is a community partnership between the Beckenham Community Housing Trust and Christchurch City Council to cater for the needs of some marginalised people in the community. It houses people with a mix of disabilities, both emotional and physical, in individual single-person units supported by a part-time supervisor.
The vision for the housing complex was clear: "providing a healing environment through architecture, design, landscaping, and a sense of community".
The project represents a revolution in the provision of social housing. Dubbed "palaces for the poor" by the local media, the design provides high quality housing at the same cost as the Council's conventional concrete-block pensioner flats.
Design process
The Trust undertook an assessment of housing needs and the assessment identified a lack of affordable purpose-built housing available for those with emotional and physical disabilities. The Trust decided to establish an affordable housing complex on two vacant sites at the rear of the Baptist Church land in Beckenham.
Responding to a brief set by the Trust, Common Ground organised a series of community design charettes to integrate social concerns with urban design and environmental imperatives. The first charette was held in July 1998 with an open invitation to members of the parish, community, Council, welfare organisations and local elected representatives.
The outcome of the charettes was a scheme for 11 one-bedroom units, constructed in two buildings with a total footprint of 387 m2 (about 21% of the site).
Each 50 m2 unit is self-contained with a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and living room. Each ground floor unit is provided with private outdoor living courtyard, upper floor units with a 7 m2 deck and a 7 m2 landing.
A common open space of 619 m2 at the rear of the site faces north and provides privacy for the residents. Decks, kitchens, indoor and outdoor living areas are oriented to the north. Units with street frontage have bay windows off the living rooms to provide additional surveillance.
Urban design issues
The goals of the project were to:
- avoid the stigma associated with social housing as low quality, lacking amenities, and isolated from the community
- ensure an open consultation process with stakeholders, particularly the surrounding community
- establish a Trust to champion the project and to support and care for the residents
- provide affordable, purpose-built housing for those with emotional and physical disabilities. Units had to be disabled-friendly and built for a wheelchair bound person. Residents are low income, single, generally with no access to a car and therefore reliant on public transport
- integrate the design with the local community and street. The units shouldn't be identified as 'social' housing and should have the same or better characteristics as the surrounding housing stock
- respond to ecological imperatives
- provide residents with safety, security and privacy without isolating them from their community. Open space is to be maximised for the enjoyment of residents
- design the units so they have low operating costs for residents.
Evaluation - urban design principles
|
Context |
The site is in the heart of the Beckenham community in Christchurch, one street from the arterial route of Colombo Street. The development provides higher density housing that helps support the vitality of the main street retailers and services, and the frequency and service of public transport. |
|---|---|
|
Character |
The architecture was informed by the local building style, a nearby Art Deco Church and arts and crafts bungalows. The new buildings are modern in style but acknowledge the character of the adjacent buildings by using deep overhangs that provide shade in summer and weather protection for courtyards and decks in winter. Verandas and bay windows add relief to the façades and provide surveillance of the street from the living rooms. The large buildings are kept to domestic scale by the use of varied roof forms, materials such as locally sourced Darfield brick, plaster relief and locally designed artworks. The buildings are arranged in a U-shape that creates a front towards Percival Street, overlooking the access lane to the north that leads to the courtyard. This forms a sunny, enclosed court and garden. Parking is at the rear of the site. Limiting access to one vehicle crossing into the site maintains the street edge, and avoids the dominating visual impact of multiple driveways and garages. Public and private space is clearly defined by the buildings and entry gate that ensures the residents' privacy, while maintaining a strong relationship between the units and the street. Of the total open space, 40% is private and 60% is shared. The shared open space facilitates socialising to encourage mutual support. The oversized stair access becomes a shared meeting space, and the letterbox is a deliberately accented meeting spot, not just an afterthought. |
|
Choice |
While the nature of the development provides a single housing type, the project increases the diversity of housing options within the wider community. It provides purpose-built, affordable housing that meets the needs of those with disabilities. The quality of the design, well above the usual social housing standard, ensures the housing remains adaptable and able to respond to the need of a wide range of potential tenants. Open spaces encourage flexible use for recreation, gardening and conversation. |
|
Connections |
Both physically and socially there are good connections to the local area. The site is integrated into the local community through the Church, the proximity to local retail and services and public transport (approximately 200 m). |
|
Creativity |
This scheme shows how high quality, well-designed public housing can be created at a cost similar to standard developments. This development is the result of a collaborative effort between the Beckenham Community Housing Trust, Christchurch City Council and the local community and successfully integrates social and urban design issues into an innovative housing development. |
|
Custodianship |
A small building footprint allowed large areas of private and communal open space to be made available for the residents, resulting in 56% of the site remaining in permeable surfaces. Parking bays are formed in a semi-pervious grass cell, allowing stormwater infiltration and softening the visual appearance of car parking. Living areas and kitchens face north to allow passive solar gain. Each unit has a private north facing courtyard or deck as well as access to the communal garden space. BRANZ provided advice on materials, which were locally sourced where possible, to ensure environmentally sound manufacture, thermal efficiency and low toxicity. All windows are double glazed, and walls are insulated to standards higher than the building code requires. An EECA grant allowed the project to install solar hot water heating. As a result, the units are cost effective for low-income residents. All units are fitted with low-flush toilets and efficient taps and showerheads. Recycling facilities and clotheslines are provided for all units. The landscape design incorporates a diversity of native plants that reflect the Canterbury plains. Residents were involved in planting the site to personalise their open spaces. |
|
Collaboration |
Stakeholders and interested parties formed a committee that became the project champion, formulating the design brief for the consultants, establishing the partnership with the City Council, raising necessary funds, liaising with members of the community including immediate residents, and managing the project's successful implementation. A series of community design charettes were held to integrate social concerns with urban design and environmental imperatives. |
Lessons learnt
Good urban design goes beyond the physical components of the built environment to encompass the detailed aspects of how that environment will be used. With informed design it is possible to deliver good quality housing within a limited budget, to eliminate the stigma associated with social housing and provide healing environments for integrated care in the community.
Inclusive and open consultation with stakeholders and interested parties allowed the project to bring together wide community support and a joint venture partner. Design workshops with stakeholders explored the opportunities to create a design that met a wide range of needs, and greatly contributed to the design outcome.
By involving the specialist expertise of BRANZ and ECCA, the project was able to integrate cost-effective sustainable building technologies such as solar hot water heating, increased insulation, double glazing and water efficient taps. Unfortunately, technologies that could radically reduce the adverse effects of water and energy consumption were too expensive and outside the project's budget.
District plans can make it difficult to provide diverse housing stock. In this case the district plan didn't recognise social housing other than for pensioners. District plans need to respond to diverse communities or they will exclude and marginalise many.
Value gained
- Providing a practical response to an identified need, the project was completed within the Council's budget for affordable housing.
- It delivers a high quality living environment for those who most need support within the community. The design sets a new standard for all social housing, earning the description "palaces for the poor".
- The quality of the project, the year-long community consultation during the design phase, and the care taken in providing a safe and healing environment shows that social housing can be integrated successfully into the community without the stigma of poor quality design and reduced amenity.
- Rentals are set less than market rates (approximately 80%) in accordance with the Council's housing policy. Rental income is used to maintain the properties and fund additional housing stock.
- BRANZ awarded the housing complex a Green Home Award in 2000 for efficiency in design and running costs with energy savings of about 25% over similar conventionally designed units.
Comments
"The Lancewood Courts complex is very well appointed. The design and décor are wonderful, and you only need to talk to tenants who have moved in to know how successful it has been. They never thought they would be living somewhere they would consider luxurious. The Council, through partnerships, is filling a gap in the rental housing market. Christchurch can be proud that there are no homeless people in the City."
- Councillor Carole Anderton, Chair Housing Working Party. Christchurch City Council. Christchurch Press, 2000
An independent Tenant Satisfaction Survey commissioned by Christchurch City Council in 2002 concluded that 100% of the Lancewood Courts tenants found that their housing arrangements were either very satisfactory or excellent; this compared favourably with the 94% response from Council tenants.
