Our approach begins with a deep understanding of the site and its surroundings to shape a response routed in its context. The masterplan prioritises the spaces between buildings to introduce a series of contextually responsive spaces that are designed to feel open, familiar, and inviting allowing these spaces to become the focus of the new community as an attractor and retainer of people.

A reinstated frontage along Sackville Road celebrates the change in level with feature “Spanish Steps” establish a strong sense of arrival, while a central north–south boulevard connects two public squares inspired by Brighton and Hove’s Regency heritage. Key spaces are augmented by a range of different uses to activate the ground plane whilst providing social infrastructure for the new and existing community. Beyond the primary public spaces buildings are arranged to break the site down and create a layered approach to space that adds richness and hierarchy. Spaces of different scale and character are introduced including more secluded, smaller scale private spaces for different uses including children’s play, food growth and contemplation.

Built form has been shaped to add to and enhance the creation of public spaces where the introduction of buildings provides the backdrop to key spaces to add further richness and character. A playful approach to building forms and their scale creates visual interest, variety and texture within the spaces created to balance a human scale with an increase in height in key locations to respond to key routes and views.

A key challenge has been developing a mechanism to provide an appropriate contextual response whilst driving density to maximise the provision of new homes. Through a place led approach to the distribution of height we were able to introduce a series of buildings at high density whilst providing a contextually appropriate building vernacular. A smaller scale is applied to the Sackville Road frontage to knit the development into the surrounding Victorian residential streets whilst mediating to the taller elements that sit centrally within the site. The tallest buildings are intentionally directional to maximise sea views whilst considering micro climatic conditions.

Working closely with local forums, residents, and conservation officers, we developed an architectural language that can only be in Hove; contextual, layered, and human in scale. The architectural approach balances the creation of a family of buildings that are visually coherent whilst having their own visual identity in response to their own specific position and role within the overall composition of the neighbourhood. A complex exercise in rhythm, proportion, texture, scale, contrast and colour generates a highly considered approach to the language of the buildings held together through commonality in articulation, fenestration, detail and materiality.

The Sackville Road fronting buildings take cues from the neighbouring Victorian whilst the central boulevard is held on either side by a contemporary response to the cities historic Mews House and Mansion Block typologies to provide variation in character and scale. References to the cities notable Art Deco built heritage are applied to inform several buildings elevational diagrams through experimentation in rhythm, direction and proportion. Splashes of colour are strategically applied in key locations against the backdrop of an intentionally restrained palette of materials to provide hierarchy in emphasising key facades. Notably green glazed brickwork and Art Deco proportions nod to the nearby Dubarry Perfume Factory a well loved local heritage asset that presents a green mosaic motif across its façade.