Breaking the Europan curse

• Increase image
• View all images

Witherford Watson Mann (WWM) has become the first practice in the UK to land outline planning permission for a winning Europan project.

But only a fool would put money on the practice ending the UK's disastrously unproductive 14-year-long flirtation with the Europe-wide housing contest.

WWM's 122-home scheme, part of the regeneration of the concrete 1960s Stonebridge estate in north-west London,
has already endured a two-year rollercoaster ride which has seen both the brief and site change.

And despite drawing up detailed proposals and carrying out extensive public consultation, the victors of the 2006 CABE-organised Europan 8 contest are facing yet more uncertainty.

• Author: Richard Waite.

Witherford Watson Mann's model for the Stonebridge estate

The scheme's site is to be sold by landowner Hillside Housing Trust, formerly Stonebridge Housing Action Trust, to a private developer.

The trust, which has already delivered hundreds of social houses within a larger Shepheard Epstein Hunter/Terence O'Rourke masterplan, as well as Will Alsop's Fawood Children's Centre, did not want to get involved with private homes. And there is nothing to compel the buyer to retain WWM.

But a glimmer of hope remains. When Hillside sells on the site, the deal will be tied to a licence and any purchaser will only be fully given the land when the trust has decided it is 'of sufficient quality'.

Commenting on the pending sale and the fact that WWM has already had two unrealised wins in Europan 5 and 6, co-founder Stephen Witherford said: 'We don't feel betrayed by Europan.

'We knew there were no guarantees Stonebridge would be built. All the parties – CABE, Hillside and whoever purchases [the site] – buy into that risk. You don't do Europan expecting it to go smoothly.'

On balance, Witherford remains positive about the scheme. He says: 'This is an important first step for Europan in the UK. It's gone from a contest aspiration to a complex development with 122 units and outline planning'.

But to followers of the Europan story, the Stonebridge plot is familiar. Since the UK first entered the competition in 1994 not one scheme has been delivered, while hundreds of homes have been built under the contest umbrella elsewhere in Europe.

Now the future of WWM's design is at the whim of the market. In that way, Witherford says, '[we] have been put under the same demands as anyone else and have had to make [the £16 million development] stack up financially.'

WWM's sketch for Stonebridge estate

In Oldham, Lancashire, a scheme by fellow Europan 8 winners Loop Architecture and Harry Dobbs Design is also no nearer to coming out of the ground. Although approved generally as part of a larger masterplan for a Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder area, a detailed application has yet to be submitted.

Loop's Phil Catcheside expects this to finally happen in September this year. He said: 'Things are moving forward, albeit painfully slowly... It seems to have taken a long time to get to this stage but it hasn't fallen apart.'

The practice's scheme for developer BASE (AJ 01.02.07) tripled in size from 44 to 150 homes and was widely tipped to become the UK's first Europan success story in the UK.

But, as Pathfinders nationally came under scrutiny, heels dragged, and even though the project could have 'some' gap funding, Catcheside feels the development could 'end up being as [commercially] exposed as many others'.

Yet Europan-backer CABE has defended the contest, claiming the Stonebridge permission marks 'a milestone' and that the competition is 'also about making contacts'.

However, Catcheside concluded: 'Though CABE has done everything asked of it in terms of design quality, the Europan system can't force people [namely private developers] to spend money if they don't want to.'