Work starts on council’s award-winning project to build homes for Stamford Hill’s Charedi community
The ground breaking ceremony at Tower Court Estate. L-R: Liza Fior of muf architecture/art, architect Adam Khan, Motty Friesel of Hatzola, Andy Fancy from Countryside and mayor Phil Glanville. Picture: S Saunders / Digital Nation - Credit: S Saunders / Digital Nation Photography
Work has begun on Hackney Council’s award-winning project to build 130 homes designed alongside the Charedi community in Stamford Hill.
Three homes on Tower Court will be converted to council rent. - Credit: Archant
Tower Court, overlooking Clapton Common, will include 33 council homes, 19 for shared ownership and 80 for private sale to help fund the development.
The plans were designed by Adam Khan Architects in collaboration with muf architecture/art, who worked closely with the Orthodox Jewish community in the area. The project was one of 16 winners in the Project Award at the Housing Design Awards 2017.
The new properties - suitable for all - can accommodate larger families and have kitchens that can be adapted to meet Kosher requirements.
Automatic Shabbat elevators and balconies that allow a sukkah to be built during Sukkot - the weeklong holiday that comes five days after Yom Kippur - are also features of the new development.
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Volunteer paramedic firm Hatzola will also take over a two-storey building on the site.
Hackney mayor Phil Glanville said the project, built by developers Countryside, was another example of the council doing "everything it could" to deliver genuinely affordable homes for the 13,000 people on the borough's housing list.
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He added: "Just as importantly, by working hard to understand the needs of local people here in Stamford Hill, our plans for Tower Court show that the homes we build are firmly rooted in their communities and available and accessible to everyone who might need them."
The redevelopment is one of more than 20 sites where Hackney is building 2,000 new homes by 2022, with more than half genuinely affordable - council rent or shared ownership. Due to the absence of any government funding it needs to sell the rest of the homes it builds to pay for the work.
People who lived in Tower Court before it was demolished in 2014 will have priority for the new homes.
Local artists have also been invited to create mosaics in the communal areas of the buildings.
