Architects prepare to experience life on Newcastle housing estate

The designers, who are competing to transform two estates in Byker, will each spend a week in the flat in order to gain a full understanding of the area. They will live above a neighbourhood drop-in centre, which is under construction, so residents will be able to feed them their ideas around the clock.

The companies competing in the pathfinder Bridging Newcastle Gateshead-funded scheme are Letts Wheeler, Broadway Maylan, Ryder HKS, Xsite and Fluid Design. After the five-week scheme is over, the architects will present their ideas. Following further community consultation, the winner will then be picked by Newcastle council and the pathfinder.

Peter Aviston, area director (east) for the council’s regeneration directorate, said of the move: “I think that even just spending a week living in the area would help a little bit more than just paying a flying visit to a particular estate.

“We would like to encourage the architects to live and breathe Byker because we feel it would help them understand the issues. They might even repeat the exercise two months later to build up the relationship.”

The architects are due to move on site in March and could then return in May before detailed designs are submitted in the summer.

The “iconic” estates, in South Lawrence Square and South Byker, were developed in the 1970s by architect Ralph Erskine after the housing stock reached such a poor condition that large-scale clearance was proposed.

However, the areas have become unpopular with locals and have been blighted by empty properties and declining demand. The aim of the competition is to create a “design-led” regeneration of the area – and the entrants have been encouraged to use innovative architecture and environmentally sustainable technology to achieve this.

Aviston added: “The community has come up with its own charter for the area. One part of that is to work extremely closely with the design process. They have been invited to drop in and meet the architects and help them with the details of the scheme.”

Jo Boaden, Bridging Newcastle Gateshead director, said: “This is a real opportunity for local people to get involved and to influence the designs.”