Design should transform communities
Design should be at the heart of any building project. As a specialist property developer, design is always at the top of our agenda. It helps us to optimise opportunities, unlock market potential, establish competitive advantage, help generate value, and create places where our customers want to live and work. We are fortunate in so much as the customers we work with understand the power of good design.
Design can and should transform neighbourhoods, communities and society. We love nothing better than to roll our sleeves up, get our thinking caps on, unpick problems and build a vision which creates inspirational places and spaces to inhabit.
Developing homogenous, off the peg, context blind, lazy, serial reproductions is not what we are about. And, we deliberately don’t mix in those circles. Instead, we work with a wide range of hugely talented and totally inspirational people in our supply chain who share our vision.
Take architects. Those who have worked on Blueprint projects bring their talent to the table … and with immensely creative results. And, it goes back to what I said at the beginning that design helps up deliver our vision of high quality projects thanks to design led approach.
These approaches are deeply immersive. So working collaboratively with an architect who understands our concerns, challenges and priorities, and one who understands our passion and vision and how that will be achieved through design is of utmost importance. An ability to see the big picture and instinctively understand the ‘genius loci’ is non-negotiable.
We work with a number of platinum architects such as Ash Sakula, Studio Egret West, Marsh Grochowski, Hawkins Brown, Urbed, Mae, Levitate, Sarah Wigglesworth, Glen Howells, Fraher and many more too numerous to mention. They set the bar very high. That’s why we work with them because in my mind creating great places requires talented professionals and fully committed clients.
These are exciting times for those of us in the property industry. There is need for more homes and more innovative approaches to development. The “same old” is just not going to deliver either the quantum or quality required. In commercial markets most major Cities outside London have fast dwindling quality stock partly a function on there being a dearth of development post economic crash in 2008.
One innovation into which we are investing huge effort currently is Custom Build. The Government is looking to at least double the number of Custom Build homes per annum; and we are seeing more opportunities across the country for these types of projects. We will be rolling out a Custom Build proposition at Trent Basin in the near future.
We are particularly excited about our Trent Basin project. After several years of effort we will launch our first phase of 45 homes to the market next month. The first phase will be completed in the summer to be followed rapidly by other phases. We have advanced plans for 500 homes with a value in excess of £100m and aspiration for more!
To see an unloved and neglected piece of old land and former inland dock transform into a newly designed neighbourhood you know will flourish in decades to come is particularly inspiring. With many projects on our portfolio, and more on the horizon, it’s a great time to be a developer!
For further details go to blueprintregeneration.com and www.trentbasin.co.uk or follow @TrentBasinNews @BlueprintPlaces