Lambourn Bockhampton Road Community
We are proposing the development of 15 houses on the Eastern side of Lambourn, with access from Bockhampton Road.
Developing this site will help consolidate part of Lambourn which currently lacks coherence or connection to the centre. It will enhance the area and, because of its exemplary design, will add value to the neighbourhood. The site lies at the bottom of the valley and is therefore very discreet – practically invisible – from outside the village. By introducing a wetland area the scheme not only helps mitigate the flooding problem being faced by the residents of Lambourn, it introduces a new public amenity and will add to the biodiversity of the riverside and enhance its SSSI status. This site is clearly waiting to be developed.
The scheme has been designed by Florian Beigel and the Architecture Research Unit, who recently achieved the highest rating in the Research Assessment Exercise of the UK Government for Architecture and the Built Environment. This year Florian Beigel was awarded the 2013 Berlin Grand Art Prize.
For ARU, adding to the existing neighbourhood was primarily about creating a sense of community and place, based on the idea of communal spaces. With this in mind, the new structures are organised around an infrastructure of shared spaces. These are the common ground of the community. They encourage a sense of civility and neighbourly spirit to the place, a theatre for public life. These common spaces are surrounded by terraces of houses and community buildings.
