Waterstone Park
Greenhithe, Kent
This elegant, contemporary Kent Thameside scheme was described by the Building for Life judges as "very brave and bold, a really interesting out-of-town development."
Located south of a partly brownfield and former industrial site near the Bluewater shopping centre, the scheme incorporates the grounds of Stone Castle, a Grade II listed building, to which it carefully relates. Countryside Properties’ earlier housing at the site’s northern end adopted a Kent version of neo-vernacular, but this and further stages of the masterplan adopt a more contemporary style.
Although phase three, which links this phase to the earlier housing, is not yet complete, the transition between the neo-vernacular and the contemporary will be managed to minimise any contrast, while giving the whole development a distinctive character. A wide variety of flats and houses is offered, with ten different house types represented in the phase’s forty-seven houses. Wide house frontages allow a relatively high level of car parking on-plot and more is integrated into the street scene. Externally there is no distinction between affordable (28%) and market housing. Careful arrangement of units on the hilltop site allows residents to benefit from extensive views of the surroundings. When finished the three-phase scheme will provide around 450 homes.
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