Europan 8: Milton Keynes site _ Living in the Green Edge
Europan is an urban housing competition for young architects. It
uses sites across Europe where urban housing development is to take place.
The site we chose was in Milton Keynes (UK) near the city centre.
The site
stood as a green empty square at the very edge of the Bradwell Common area.
Our scheme responded to this edge condition and exploited its closeness to
MK Central.
The shape of the plot was preserved by defining its edges,
building in all four sides of the square. The greenness of the site
was kept by lifting the plane of vegetation to the upper terraces and roof
levels.
Although the focus of the scheme was residential, other uses were
accommodated at ground level, providing services to the community and the
surrounding neighbourhood and defining a pedestrian route through the site
linking to the existing pedestrian bridge.
The site levels allowed to provide a common car park under the main
pedestrian access level, but with visual links from the private communal
gardens.
Follow the links below to recent work
OVERALL VIEW: Proposed scheme on site model
CROSS SECTION: Cut
away section of site showing diverse use of levels.
UNITS:
Modular system based
on a 6.4 wide x 8.0 deep x 2.72m high units
Proposed construction: timber frame close
panelised system, off site manufacture. All units stack above each other,
with room for adaptation in future - Two 1Bed units can turn into 3Bed by
adding the stair, the floor panel can be structured for taking out the stair
void. Equally, the units could revert from larger to smaller units by making
it possible to infill the stairwells with floor panels and seal them.
1 BED (42m2 + balcony 7m2) 2 BED (66m2 + terraces 18m2)
3 BED (79m2 + balcony 4m2) 3 BED + Work (79+48= 127m2 + balcony 4m2)
4BED (103 + terraces 17 m2)
CORE USES: The cores provide storage areas at ground floor for all the units, service areas for meters and boilers, access to the flats at all levels, access to green roofs and terraces.
Pedestrian Street Internal Garden Roof Terraces
