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Beechwood West, Basildon
- Awards: RIBA National Award 2024 – Winner, RIBA East Award 2024 – Winner, Essex Housing Awards – Winner, National Housing Award 2017 - Highly Commended
- Client: Swan Housing and NU Living
- Scope + Status: Residential landscape, community space, completed
- Consultants: PTE Architects
84 Trees Planted
Our Principle
3,900 m² Social/play
251 New Homes
Bringing nature home to Basildon
Beechwood West is a landmark new neighbourhood of 251 homes in Basildon. Outerspace worked with the community to develop a stunning new park space at the heart of this new development. In our extensive consultation for the wider masterplan improvements for this project, a fundamental design need emerged: to bring the community closer to nature, with connective green infrastructure that would benefit local ecology.
Design Response:
Nature as social fabric
Being so vital for the existing ecology, we worked hard to preserve as many existing trees and lengths of boundary vegetation as possible. Our solution of interconnected greens helps to connect these new homes with the existing estate and to the open space and parkland beyond. Each green provides a focal point for the new homes that surround them, with lush planting providing softening and consistency to the award-winning, customisable architecture.
Highlights include:
• Communal seating for casual encounters
• Natural play zones for children
• Pathways inviting exploration
• Sightlines that open to woodland and local parks
We embedded sustainability throughout: rain gardens, SUDs, native planting, and habitat creation for birds, insects and small mammals. No heavy earthworks. No overdesign. Just a landscape that belongs.
“Creating attractive public gardens through the middle of the neighbourhood with a modest budget was a challenge. My biggest learning point is that you can never plant too many trees, and persuading clients that their value per cost is worth fighting for.”
Nick Willmore
The fight to flourish
Beechwood West proves that suburbia can flourish, with human communities and wildlife thriving in harmony – the best of both worlds!
Learnings & pride points
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Delivered a biodiverse, sustainable suburban estate
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A balance between privacy and social connection
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Integrated habitat creation and rainwater harvesting
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A landscape where community and nature grow side by side