“Phoenix Community Housing has an initiative where they commandeer a local green and a supplier with a van, and residents get a free chippy tea if they engage with the design team behind a project,” says Tom Mitchell, partner at architect Metropolitan Workshop. “You get a carnival atmosphere – people bring out their deck chairs, have a drink and relax.” 

He recalls the conversations at these events in 2019, which helped to shape the affordable housing scheme his practice has recently completed on the Bellingham Estate, a 1920s development in the London borough of Lewisham built in the Arts & Crafts style and influenced by the Garden City Movement. “The major concern from local residents was that they didn’t want to see something bulky and generic – they wanted something that reflected the local vernacular.”

Metropolitan Workshop’s answer was to design with reference to the scale, density and material palette of the surroundings, from the brick detailing and low-rise buildings to the communal gardens and spacious, geometric layout. “It’s the first time we”ve ever done anything symmetrical,” Mitchell says.