Featherstone Co-housing was a project to create 12 new homes for a co-housing group at Featherstone Lodge, a locally listed Victorian building on the crest of Sydenham Hill, in south London.
The scheme involved retrofitting the original lodge to provide private and social-rent residential accommodation, communal facilities for the residents and new-build homes on the site.
The project was developed collaboratively with the cohousing members; a cross-generational group with a diverse range of backgrounds, including young families, middle-aged couples and single people of retirement age.
The new homes and communal spaces were co-designed to provide long-term sustainable accommodation tailored to the group’s individual and collective needs.
The lodge was originally constructed as a single dwelling but had most recently been used for institutional purposes. The change of use to residential accommodation was designed to employ a light-touch retrofit approach, maximising cost and material efficiency for the group and allowing elements of self-build.
The designs sought to established viable long-term community value in the arrangement of the common spaces and in the organisation of the entrances to homes. The patterns of circulation through the site encourages the growth of a sustainable community and fosters convivial relationships between residents.
Working with a client-group of 12 families, the scheme evolved through a participatory process of individual and group design sessions. Meetings where the boundaries to homes were negotiated and shared views were developed to create meaningful community-driven spaces.
All of the 12 new homes have living, dining and kitchen spaces that face south over the grounds and all have grouped front doors to create collections of homes within the larger site. The project also sought to create shared living and dining spaces that would enable communal activities.
The approach to retrofitting the Victorian Lodge and for the designs for the new homes, were developed with advice from local authority planning and conservation officers. The proposals are a sympathetic response to the character of the original building and to the mature woodland setting of the site.
The designs for the homes weave together the individual and collective requirements of the cohousing members, to provide accommodation suited to their needs and provide equivalent levels of daylight, aspects to the gardens and the opportunity for future expansion.
