Manor Road, Chigwell

This later living community sits on a hill at the very edge of Essex greenbelt, overlooking the verdant landscape of the Roding Valley. There will be 105 apartments with a wellbeing suite open to the public, equipped with gym, pool, spa and restaurant. It is near Chigwell village centre, the setting of Dickens’ Barnaby Rudge, being at once connected with central London, yet seeming a world away.

The close collaboration between architectural and landscape design has produced five butterfly plan villas set in an informal rolling meadow landscape. This arrangement maximises light into the living spaces and views out into the landscape. The buildings are split level so that all ground floor apartments open out onto private terraces. A detention pond provides biodiversity and sustainable drainage. Cars are limited to the margins, leaving a communal garden at the heart of the arrangement.

Client

PegasusLife

Date

2015

Team

RCKa, architect / Symmetrys, engineer / Milieu, MEP