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Location: Caterham, Surrey, Caterham, Surrey CR3 5XY
Built: 2001
Designer: Linden Homes (developer) / John Thompson & Partners (architects)
Type: suburban
Density: 37 homes per hectare
Parking ratio: 195%
A mixed-use redevelopment of Caterham Barracks relies on unallocated parking alongside commercial elements to manage demand for parking. The scheme illustrates techniques for putting the car on street in an easy to park arrangement which supports the streetscape.
This former brownfield site contains 348 dwellings, 27% of which are affordable homes administered by the Guinness Trust. There is also an appreciable amount of mixed use development, with a major supermarket and other smaller retailers present.
The use of slate roofs and a light coloured brickwork is reasonably consistent throughout, occasionally with reconstituted stone dressings to windows; two-storey stained softwood loggia/balconies are constructed outboard of the main buildings, sometimes to gable ends and in other locations, at right angles to the principal elevations. There is a strong formal geometry to the principal street, which is designed as a planted boulevard. This is met at its conclusion by a large square, curved at its far end and partially colonised by houses two thirds along its length, effectively dividing the landscape in two parts.
A smaller landscaped square is located to the side of the boulevard. There are a sensibly limited number of parking solutions on site, mostly complementary to the overall geometry of the plan. Vehicles are parked in angled bays along the entire length of the boulevard, separated from the homes by the approach carriage-ways themselves. The bays are laid in the same diagonally laid paviors as the roads, but defined separately by three rows of granite setts. Planting reduces the scale of the straight vista down this street. The sympathetically scaled and generously planted smaller square off the boulevard provides simple layby parking to its four, unequal sides. These spaces are defined by paviors with flush precast edging, separating the blacktop roadway. The corners of the square are crisply detailed in a combination of turf and granite setts.
Interestingly, the larger square, which promises to be the focus of the development is less successful, with both the landscaping and surrounding housing somewhat raw in their detail. Simple hardstandings formed in paviors and separated from houses both by a footpath and deep planting beds, provide the final parking solution.
The development consists of 2, 3 and 4 bedroom houses arranged in 2, 2.5 and 3 storey terraces.
This image created from stitching several together shows how the user has the option to go to side courts, on square bays or parking on own plots. Some still park in front of larger houses as the tandem arrangement of one bay in front of another in the garage does not work for some residents.
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Properties face onto amenity space. Most buyers sought views rather than garages.
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The size of the square, the height of the homes (including gables) and the size of trees support this treatment
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This front court parking treatment is improved by the trees and the use of pavers. Residents will appreciate immediate access to homes
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The buildings not he left are apartments converted from officers' blocks. The parking here needs more tree planting to soften its impact
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The conversion of the barracks buildings into townhouses is served by car parking in a pooled central reservation where the fomal treatment tends to make most people respect where to park
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The central reservation is separated fron the townhouses carved out of the original 3-storey barracks buildings by pavers and softened with a line of trees separating the two halves
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There are a wide range of treatments used at Caterham and the image here shows how varied the scheme is generally
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Again, like the car parking and housing, the planting is formal
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the cars are a little way from homes but any anxiety is managed through surveillance from three sides and three storeys.
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The big converted barracks buildings are of a scale that helps out punch the car parking's impact. Note the outride to the block on the left, originally the stairwell access to the sleeping blocks
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An early reinvention of the Georgian housing square at Caterham mixes up provision, using garages to link larger private sale villas while smaller units have bays in either courts to side of square on or the square itself.
Red Light! - Underwhelming landscaping and lack of pedestrian route.
Proceed with Caution! - Occasionally intrusive presence of vehicles where hard-standings are paired.
Green Light! - Size of square offers generous provision of on street spaces. Natural materials, rather than municipal signage, denotes function. Excellent visual connection between homes and vehicles. Depth of vehicle hard-standing successfully delineates pavement and roadway, promises generous landscaped zone along street edges.
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Smaller houses and apartment buildings are served by a mix of courts to the side and by parking on the square, while larger units have a mix of garages and bays in front of them.
Red Light! - Underwhelming landscaping and lack of pedestrian route.
Proceed with Caution! - Occasionally intrusive presence of vehicles where hard-standings are paired.
Green Light! - Size of square offers generous provision of on street spaces. Natural materials, rather than municipal signage, denotes function. Excellent visual connection between homes and vehicles. Depth of vehicle hard-standing successfully delineates pavement and roadway, promises generous landscaped zone along street edges.
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Larger homes, here semi-detached villas, come with a linked garage and a bay in front.
Red Light! - Underwhelming landscaping and lack of pedestrian route.
Proceed with Caution! - Occasionally intrusive presence of vehicles where hard-standings are paired.
Green Light! - Size of square offers generous provision of on street spaces. Natural materials, rather than municipal signage, denotes function. Excellent visual connection between homes and vehicles. Depth of vehicle hard-standing successfully delineates pavement and roadway, promises generous landscaped zone along street edges.
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Treatment B - Court to side of housing square.
Red Light! - Underwhelming landscaping and lack of pedestrian route.
Proceed with Caution! - Occasionally intrusive presence of vehicles where hard-standings are paired.
Green Light! - Size of square offers generous provision of on street spaces. Natural materials, rather than municipal signage, denotes function. Excellent visual connection between homes and vehicles. Depth of vehicle hard-standing successfully delineates pavement and roadway, promises generous landscaped zone along street edges.
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Changes in surface materials are used to avoid the standardised municipal use of bollards to protect the soft landscaping.
Red Light! - Underwhelming landscaping and lack of pedestrian route.
Proceed with Caution! - Occasionally intrusive presence of vehicles where hard-standings are paired.
Green Light! - Size of square offers generous provision of on street spaces. Natural materials, rather than municipal signage, denotes function. Excellent visual connection between homes and vehicles. Depth of vehicle hard-standing successfully delineates pavement and roadway, promises generous landscaped zone along street edges.
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The housing square improves as landscaping matures
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Some of the streets suffer from not having parking where people feel it is most accessible
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More street trees are needed to break up the long run of bays
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Space submitted by Sam Brown
9 October 2013