Newcastle Housing Scheme Voted UK’s Best
A unique housing development in Tyneside has been voted as the best in the country thanks to its combination of modern sustainability with traditional community values.
The Malings building at Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle, was voted earlier in the week as the Supreme Winner at the Housing Design Awards, after an intensive and detailed judging process.
The award is the latest in a string of successes for the £14 million private residential project by Carillion igloo Ltd, which was previously named as the 2013 Project Winner.
The awards are seen as the industry’s most distinguished and important, and to win the main prize is extra praise for a scheme built on a commitment to “quality, design and sustainability.”
To claim the star prize, the Malings building fought off competition from projects throughout the country, including major schemes in Bath, Birmingham, Hampshire and London.
The project is now being promoted as a prime example of best practice, after it fulfilled the main criteria for the awards “to explain what residents think about innovative design and whether it can be replicated.”
Director at igloo, David Roberts, said that receiving the award confirmed the scheme’s importance as one to look up to on the national stage.
Roberts said: “We were attracted to the possibility of building new homes in the Ouseburn Valley, but recognised the challenges this would give us – industrial sites, gritty urban character, and sensitive riverside ecology.”
The Malings scheme is made up of 76 homes, which range from four storey tower houses to one bedroom flats, which have all been built to minimise energy and to take advantage of natural light along with a number of other factors, which aim to promote low-energy living.
Residents are encouraged to be environmentally friendly and are helped in this by schemes such as areas for communal recycling, systems to collect rainwater, micro allotments and bicycle storage spaces.
