Hillington Square

Location: King’s Lynn, Norfolk
Client: Freebridge Community Housing
Date: 2011 – 2015
Value: £30m
Awards: AJ Retrofit - Winner 2015 RTPI Awards 2015 - Finalist 2015 Brick Awards - Finalist 2015 RTPI East of England Award 2015

The Hillington Square estate regeneration aims to improve the standard of housing and the quality of life of its tenants. It includes refurbishment of 320 properties, changes to the estate layout and public realm improvements.

The estate, built between 1967-71, comprised a series of blocks with confusing deck access and streets lined with garages. The inward facing development differed greatly from its context.

Recognising that the building fabric was sound we sought a low environmental impact approach to breathe life back into the estate. New stair and lift cores, internal re-planning to allow front doors at street level and a face-lift change the estate’s identity.

“Mæ’s approach has been to understand the estate at the urban scale, the scale of the neighbourhood and the way individuals live in the units…Mæ has provided a model of sustainable and intelligent redevelopment for an estate and community that could have been easily lost.” (The Architects’ Journal)

The project featured as a best practice case study in the Government's estate regeneration national strategy.

Social Housing Exhibition featuring Mæ schemes travels to New York Research News

We're excited to announce that two Mæ schemes will again form part of an exhibition on Social Housing, curated by Karakusevic Carson Architects and travelling stateside to New York's Center of Architecture. The exhibition draws together 25 case studies by a new generation of practices that are transforming affordable housing across Europe. Our Agar Grove Estate scheme for London Borough of Camden and our Hillington Square regeneration project in King's Lynn for Freebridge Council are both featured in the exhibition and in an accompanying book of the same title.
The exhibition runs from 15th Feb 2018 through to the 19th May 2018 at the Center for Architecture in New York.
January 2018 View Exhibition details here
Mæ projects featured in the Government's Estate Regeneration National Strategy Project Update

The Government's Estate Regeneration National Strategy aims to support local partners to improve and accelerate estate regeneration schemes to deliver more and better quality housing, drive local growth and improve outcomes for residents. Our Hillington Square scheme in King's Lynn and Agar Grove scheme in collaboration with Hawkins\Brown have both been featured as examples of good practice in the case-studies report. Read more in the official report here
December 2016 View Project
Hillington Square wins RTPI East of England Award Project Update

Following on from our success at the AJ Retrofit Awards Hillington Square in King's Lynn has won the Royal Town Planning Institute’s East of England Award for planning excellence.
September 2015 View Project
Hillington Square wins AJ Retrofit Award Project Update

Our estate refurbishment project Hillington Square in King's Lynn, has won the Housing category of the AJ Retrotfit Award.
September 2015 View Project
Hillington Square Brick Awards 2015 finalist Project Update

Hillington Square is shortlisted in the Brick Development Association’s 2015 Brick Awards in the Best Refurbishment Project category. This follows on from the success of Hammond Court winning the BDA Chairman's Award 2013. The winner will be announced on the 18th November.
August 2015 View Project
Hillington Square RTPI Planning Award finalist Project Update

We are delighted that Hillington Square is a finalist for the RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence in Delivering Housing. The winners will be announced on 6 July.
March 2015 View Project