Project description
Symbiotic Dwelling aims to confront Hackney’s housing and ecological crises in tandem. It looks at the areas of highest density living and thus lowest levels of access to green space per head – social housing, proposing a regenerative redevelopment of a major estate.
This project interrogates the proposed development for the De Beauvoir Estate, Hackney’s largest residential scheme, and pushes its principles to be far more environmentally suitable. A symbiotic proposal that invigorates biodiversity whilst achieving the London Borough of Hackney’s intended housing density is then achieved.
The masterplan looks at the key architectural typologies on the site, suggesting effective retrofit strategies and proposing a system of raised massing – additional housing that sits above the existing. This system allows flora and fauna to flourish on the reimagined ground floor park whilst façade systems foster vertical symbiotic relationships. De Beauvoir Estate becomes a centre for urban re-wilding and a benchmark for a more regenerative future for social housing in Hackney.
Site location
The De Beauvoir Estate, Hackney
Contact
euan.mcgregor@the-lsa.org
