Abby Rose

The development proposes to demolish the existing vacant buildings on the site, freeing up the land for a new-build development of 50 residential apartments in a bespoke contemporary building designed to address its corner location and the surrounding context. The site comprises a corner plot located at the junction of Orchard Road and Orphanage Road in Erdington. The site was formerly used as a care home but has been vacant for around 12 months since the home relocated to a newer facility. The
design is driven by the key aspiration of creating a develoment that will be an asset to the area, enhancing the existing streetscape and residental setting, and complimenting the nearby listed building with a sensitive and well-detailed contemporary design.

SCALE AND MASSING
The proposed building is of variable height with step-backs and terracing used to break up the building massing and form a dynamic skyline, which steps down where adjacent to neighbours and is built at the site corner to form a landmark focal point. The building façade is stepped in order to bring the building forward at the corner to define a focal point, and set the building back at each end where it is nearest to its neighbours. In addition, the façade of the top storey is stepped back by a considerable distance in order to reduce the perceived height when viewed from ground level. Changes in material have been aligned to coincide with steps and changes in the building façade in order both to create a strong sense of architectural order and to enable junctions between materials to be neatly detailed to return to an inner corner.

SITE LAYOUT AND APPEARANCE
The building has been designed to follow a similar footprint to the existing buildings on the site. This form retains open space to the edges of the site adjacent to the neighbouring properties and creates a strong façade with a double frontage that turns the corner between Orphanage Road and Orchard Road. The main entrances to the building will be located one on each façade, facing towards Orchard and Orphanage Road. Along each façade, the ground level flats will each be provided with their own private entrance, to further reinforce the sense of a residential street and to create a more active frontage to the street. On the Southern end of the building on Orchard Road is a ramped access leading down to the basement parking area.
The building style is designed to present a clean and contemporary take on some of the traditional materials used in the local area. The immediate locality is primarily an area of traditional brick construction including the Grade II listed building on the opposite corner of Orchard Road. The proposed design takes inspiration from its surroundings utilising contrasting brick tones to create colour variation and making use of steps and recesses to create shadow detail and add a sense of depth and strength to the façade that
acknowledges traditional features of brick construction.