Pontardawe, Wales
| Type | Housing |
|---|---|
| Location | Pontardawe, Neath Port Talbot, Wales |
| Scale | 1.45 ha (0.7 ha developable area)
Low carbon housing scheme: 35 homes, a community centre and shared gardens at the heart of the development |
| Client | Sero Homes | Partners | Loyn + Co Architects |
|---|---|
| Status | Planning consent granted 2019 |
| Riba Stages | 1-3 |
Ambition
An Innovative, Replicable Model for a Zero Carbon Future
This project represents an innovative and achievable approach to building new homes that generate and store the energy they need, enabling future communities to lead environmentally sustainable lifestyles.
The design responds sensitively to the site’s designation as a SINC (Site of Interest for Nature Conservation) and its proximity to an Ancient Woodland.
Impact
A Landscape in Perpetuity
The landscape works hard ecologically and socially to provide for both people and nature, whilst retaining a simplicity that ensures private and shared spaces are practical and naturalistic.
Planting is inspired by the self-seeding species already flourishing on site, strengthening the existing natural character and reducing the need for complex or costly maintenance.
Careful and creative integration of SuDS ensures effective management of water throughout the seasons, despite poor surface permeability. Within the communal gardens, shallow attenuation ponds with gentle slopes become landscape features in themselves, offering exploratory water play in wetter months and exposing new ways to traverse and experience the space during drier spells.
A Connected Community
The new community is brought together by the shared gardens at the heart of the site, offering residents of all ages and abilities opportunities to gather, relax, play and eat together. All homes open on to a private back deck connected to this active, accessible and natural green space.
Approach
Lightness of Touch
The design does not impose itself on the setting, but rather is sensitively embedded into the surroundings. The landscape adopts and works with the natural processes governing the site.
The spaces are designed for flexibility allowing the community to use and curate these as they wish.
Neighbourliness
The development encourages a sense of community, connecting people with each other and the natural environment.
Practicality
Planting is inspired by the natural setting, promoting local ecology and creating an attractive and low-maintenance landscape. Materials have been selected from a robust, refined and fuss-free palette.
Permeability
People, nature and water can pass through the site without obstacles or hard barriers. Rather than severing the space with solid lines of fencing, planting can flourish to create soft boundaries. Interconnected paths, boardwalks and woodland trails will offer a range of routes that draw people through the natural setting.
Water is not directed below ground but brought to the surface and celebrated.
