Chapel

Information

Location: Chapel, Southampton, Hampshire, Southampton SO14 5GQ

Built: 2005

Designer: Persimmon Homes (developers) with Swaythling Housing Society / Chetwood Associates (architect)

Type: city centre

Density: 90 homes per hectare

Parking ratio: 82%

On-street parking supplements a semi-basement-level underground, the plinth exploited to give townhouses improved privacy and on-street surveillance. How to control unallocated spaces on street is a consideration for these blocks built close by a football stadium.

The site is close to St Mary's Stadium, home of Southampton FC. There are 174 homes including 64 affordable units with no differentiation in plan according to tenure. But market sale homes get one parking bay either in an underground or in an allocated bay on street, whereas affordable units have 50% on street in unallocated bays.

Homes are arranged in three perimeter blocks aligned north south, with flats to the north, west and south edges, townhouses mostly on the busier Paget Street to the east. Each block has a secure internal courtyard and bike store. There are balconies projecting over the street for flats at first, second and third storey and ground floor flats have a small terrace to the street and a private back garden. Townhouses have roof terraces.

Townhouses are entered half a storey above street level. This makes it harder to look into the ground floor while enabling views from within the homesover the street, increasing their contribution to street surveillance. Houses in the northern block are sat on a plinth over a semi-basement-level underground car park of 50 spaces, accessed by digitally controlled open mesh roller shutters. This is approached by driving down half a level; spaces are marked in two opposing rows of bays and include bays for residents in the middle block. Parking to the central block is entirely on street in layby style.

These are in blocks of up to seven cars, arranged on all four sides of the block including in the landscaped public realm enveloping the two slip roads that cross this east to west. Allocated on-street bays are not adopted. The management company reports disquiet that the bays are used too much by non-residents, especially on match days. The situation is being monitored with controls in mind.

The development features 1 and 2 bed flats; 2 bed duplexes; and 3 bed townhouses arranged in 3 and 4 storey orthogonal blocks with a landscaped courtyard.