Portslade Village Centre Affordable Housing Scheme

As part of Brighton and Hove City Council’s New Homes for Neighbourhoods programme the brief was to breathe life into a land-locked site by providing affordable housing complete with a new community centre, and to create new links across the site and improved public realm for the local community to enjoy.

Our ‘landscape-led’ design provides 28 new homes spread across two ‘pavilions’ and a new community centre. In addition to the 28 new flats, the proposal benefits from ample private amenity space, with ground floor units having gardens and all upper floors having balconies. A large external play area is provided for the community centre, and a site-wide landscape design links the site with the village green and shares space with existing developments. A community planting area is proposed where vegetables can be grown, together with informal play spaces and places to sit and relax along the gently sloping path running between the ‘pavilions’. Planning consent was granted following a unanimous vote by the Planning Committee in support of this scheme.

The development is an efficient, low-carbon scheme. A high efficiency building fabric coupled with ground source heat pumps and photovoltaics will reduce the energy consumption and carbon emissions. It is anticipated that overall, an approximate 64% reduction in CO₂ emissions could be achieved beyond the Part L 2021 baseline. PV panels will be connected to individual flats via micro-inverters to ensure that the electricity generated is utilised by the tenants. This ensures that carbon savings as well as cost savings are realised by the tenants.