New Headquarters & Care Village for Nottingham Community Housing Association
Landmark Planning have just secured detailed planning consent for a major mixed-use scheme in the Nottingham Green Belt at Clifton for Nottingham Community Housing Association (NCHA). The site is of the former Nottingham College on Farnborough Road.
The scheme comprises NCHA’s new headquarters, as well as relocating their maintenance facilities and call centre into one central location.
The site was an amorphous mass of buildings, so the principle design challenge was to create a scheme that did not compromise the openness of the green belt, but at the same time create a distinctive space that would provide the physical form to allow the creation of a real community at the site. The solution produced an internal cross shaped street pattern with a café deliberately placed at the centre to be a meeting place and facility for all the disparate users of the site. Breaking up of the mass of the buildings could be argued to enhance the openness of the green belt and so justify the range and scale of uses.
The local community appeared generally pleased with the approaches as the common response was of support. The scheme introduced a major employer in the immediate area with opportunities for local jobs in the future and suitable accommodation for older people. Studies by NCHA suggested that there was a high demand in the area for retirement homes but little supply. At the same time the existing sports facilities are retained, integrated into the scheme and actively managed for local people as well as the proposed users of the site.
The headquarters offices should be open in 2023 with the rest of the scheme completed in 2024.
