It was great to see Pocket Living’s Forest Road open its doors on Monday with a procession of politicians and council officers supporting the occasion. The compact site delivers 90 one bed discount market homes.
This is a successful project that benefits from exceptional design quality. There are three things I would say.
Firstly, this project succeeded because the Council, Waltham Forest has the right mentality. It asks itself how we can get homes built rather than how will the site overcome all the various policies and regulations in place. This is important. No housing development can meet all today’s requirements so a flexible and delivery focused mentality is a pre-requisite.
Secondly, the site is triangular and has changing contexts. Two storey Victorian homes bound the development from two sites with the busy Forest Road bounding the other. To maximise density, the majority of homes are single aspect. To get infill sites to work, design needs to work with the outdoor context and marry quality and efficiency. Smaller sites are expensive. Efficiency doesn’t mean a lack of quality as demonstrated by this building. Don’t take my word for it, go and see.
Third, the building is 100% affordable but at a discount market sale level. We’re moving away from a world where single building sites can deliver affordable housing and still come forward. Simple smart and innovative approaches matter.
This is one of Pocket’s best buildings and shows that affordability and quality can be achieved.
