Remodelled Houses:

The starting point for this project was to investigate the viability of renovating and remodelling the existing housing stock on the site. One of our first priories thence were to assess the layouts of the existing houses and see if they could be creatively converted from their current dilapidated state into homes people might actually want to live in. Initially we identified 3 main house typologies within the site. They were:

• Victorian terrace properties (2 up 2 down) with outriggers to the rear providing kitchens and bathrooms. This was by far the most prevalent house type across the site itself. There were a few variations where some have bay windows and others don't, as well as varying degrees of extension to the rear outriggers, but essentially the model was by and large the same across the whole site. These houses have previously been considered inflexible and undesirable, despite their popularity and continued use accross the city as a whole

• 1950s house (3 bedroom). These were built in small terraces with fairly generous front and rear gardens. They are well laid out but in need of modernisation, they have been considered dated by many and are usually the first target for the wrecking ball, however a number of them are still occupied, with the residents of these properties feeling particularly vulnerable.

• Victorian terrace properties (3 story with basements). These properties would be highly desirable like those on Greenheys Road across the avenue, had they not been blighted, allowed to fall into disrepair, and adjacent to a site earmarked for demolition. The only challenge in recovering them for use appears to be their size vs the cost of refurbishment and the margins apparently not being as favourable as new build. These are almost identical to the two houses we have recently renovated on Botanic Rd..

From these house types we designed a number of remodelling options which will be explained in greater detail on the following pages. Each house type was then costed using financial models derived from our recent projects on Botanic Rd. This gave us a realistic budget for upgrading works to both current UK building regulations standard, as well as an enhanced specification which would allow the conversion of the properties to a standard equivalent to Code for Sustainable Homes Level 3/4+.