Urban growth and housing supply might not be at the top of the Government’s agenda at the moment but our chronic lack of affordable housing is not going away. In 2018 we will be redoubling our effort to lead in the field of placemaking and housing design and will continue to influence policy through Alex’s role as Mayor’s Design Advocate and our commitment to responding to emerging policy papers. 

We believe that we will only tackle our housing crisis with this mix of top-down big thinking balanced alongside community-led initiatives. At Mæ, we constantly seek to develop ideas about placemaking at both the macro and the micro scale; working with clients and partners committed to successful regeneration and good growth.

2017 saw a further broadening of our sectors and geographical spread with new work in the home counties and the west country as well as further work in many of the London Boroughs where we already have a track record. We have developed proposals for a small mixed-use employment and residential settlement in Devon, a large urban extension in Buckinghamshire and a new city in the Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford Arc alongside one of the largest estate regeneration projects in north London and a small community arts project in west London.

In 2018 we look forward to completing phase 2 of Brentford Lock West for Waterside Places (£51m 157 units), Royal Wharf for Ballymore (110 units) and Regent’s Park Estate for the London Borough of Camden (£40m 122 units), which all demonstrate our obsession with what makes for good housing.

Under construction will be three specialist older persons housing developments, two in Westminster- for Pegasus Life (£30m 36 units) and Westminster City Council (£18m 45 units) and one in Southwark for Notting Hill Housing (£24m 117 units) and a number of urban regeneration projects including Strand East, Stratford and Tollers Lane for Brick by Brick and two community projects Sands End, Fulham and Morden College, Greenwich.

We remain tirelessly inquisitive and direct. We believe we can solve the big problems of the day alongside engaging with communities at a grass roots level and we look forward to working with our many and varied clients in 2018.

Image credit: Stale Eriksen