Sterling Gardens, developed by Nelson Land, is a new-build, multi-occupancy housing scheme in Newbury, Berkshire, comprised of 167 apartments, central landscaping and lower ground floor parking. Phase one of the scheme has now completed, encompassing 119 apartments in six of the eight residential blocks, featuring design development and implementation by architects Nissen Richards Studio. The scheme, which covers a 1 hectare site, also included s38 and s278 works to form a new link road and represents the practice’s largest ever build project to date.

Nissen Richards Studio were appointed to the project in 2018, at which point the site decontamination process had begun, having formerly been an industrial site. Whilst the massing from an original scheme had to stay in place, the client asked for more work to be done on the building layouts. As well as updating the elevational and internal layouts, the practice proposed changing the car park arrangement, replacing the proposed multiple entrances with a single entrance via a manned concierge station that also houses the building manager, and adding in a lift and external wheelchair access. Three venting structures set within the new landscaping arrangement bring light and air into the lower ground car parking area.

The practice re-considered the outline of the proposed buildings, ensuring the general massing was similar, but with a series of rationalised changes, including deeper balconies and meaningful window and door reveals, as well as a change to the landscaping in the central gardens, creating more visually playful forms. For the internal layouts of the apartments, the gross internal area was kept the same, but the new formations ensured the net sales area was increased, creating larger living spaces and more efficient common areas.

One of the biggest changes with the design evolutions to the scheme was an altered focus on materiality, with the designs based in a much more contextualised study of local materials, leading to a more textured and expressive exterior treatment, showing a dedication to quality that goes all the way through the scheme.