Sheppard Robson's Management Board Chair joins our housing forum in London

Image of Alan Shingler courtesy of Sheppard Robson

Future Cities Forum is delighted to welcome Alan Shingler, Chairman of Sheppard Robson's Management Board and a member of the firm's Design Review Group, to contribute to its 'Housing, infrastructure and communities' discussion at the Museum of the Home in Hackney this month.

As well as his specialism in residential design, Alan also oversees sustainable innovation and research projects.

Alan’s career has been shaped by the pursuit of sustainable innovation and the drive to deliver more with less. His recent projects demonstrate how this belief in efficiency and responsible design has characterised the bold architectural character of the projects he has led.

A recognised expert in sustainable design, Alan chaired the RIBA Sustainable Futures Group and was a RIBA National Councillor for six years. Alan led Sheppard Robson’s Homes & Communities Agency commission to review and assess the draft London Housing Design Guide residential design standards.

Through these roles, he has direct experience of influencing design standards and policy makers in the London region. Further, Alan is a design panel member for DSE for Kingston Upon Thames and often judges architecture awards for the Architects' Journal and RIBA.

Sheppard Robson is well known for its housing development. It is working on multiple phases of the regeneration of a former industrial estate at Clarendon Gasworks, for example, transforming the site into a mixed-use neighbourhood of over 1,700 homes.

For St William Homes (part of the Berkeley Group), Phase 3b includes three buildings that will house 281 new homes, office space, a food store, café, community centre and residents’ facilities, which will feature a lounge, gym, spa and pool. The practice's work on the scheme also includes the detailed design of Phase 4.

Proposals include extensive landscaped areas by LDA Design for the public and residents, including a new pocket square, a soft landscaped public garden, a wild planted podium space, and residents’ roof terraces for each building, all responding to the needs of the local community.

This phase provides an animated frontage to the main civic square within the wider masterplan, creating a ‘hub’ for the local community. The buildings are designed as three interlocking volumes, with lower-height buildings made from crafted brickwork addressing the immediate context.

The taller buildings (up to 14 floors) feature a gridded façade that responds to the wider townscape, referencing the gas holders that once occupied the site. Although common in form, each of the three buildings display unique identities through subtle changes in the colours of the metal elements, which reference the site’s industrial past.

At its Barking Riverside project, Sheppard Robson says its development creates energy-efficient homes ranging from traditional terraces to innovative, linear houses, that wrap around intimate gardens.

At 140 hectares, Barking Riverside is the UK’s largest residential regeneration scheme. Sheppard Robson was commissioned to prepare the designs for the 45 hectare Stage 1 area, delivering the first 1,400 of 10,800 homes in two character areas: Buzzards Mouth and Ripple Gardens.

Sustainability and inclusivity drove its designs at every stage of this project, from the layout of housing, community facilities and green space on the 45-hectare site, to the details of the comfortable and modern homes, designed for Barking Riverside Ltd. Homes cater for all members of the community, built to surpass accessibility and liveability standards, with a high proportion of home that are adaptable for wheelchair use.

The terraced housing and medium density apartment blocks provide an active backdrop to the varied streetscapes and pathways that permeate the development, with generous shared green space. Some houses have back gardens leading directly into courtyards; others open onto welcoming home-zone streets with pedestrian priority. Frontages create natural surveillance and care has been taken to make streetscapes welcoming. Houses have sufficient openings between blocks to allow access from different sides, to encourage the local community to access courtyards and for children to visit different play areas.