Lovedon Fields is a 50-home residential scheme forming a new edge to the village of Kings Worthy, near Winchester in Hampshire. This was a landscape-led project from the very outset: with BD appointed at early concept design stage to work in tandem with John Pardey Architects, and develop a holistic landscape strategy alongside the built form.
The brief from our client HAB [Happiness Architecture Beauty] was ‘to make homes that lift the spirits; that are a pleasure to live in and a joy to behold’. Lovedon was part of HAB housing’s broader objective to achieve a step-change in the design quality that is expected of and delivered by rural housing developments.
Our design strategy looked to create and maintain a landscape which provides a rich and stimulating environment for residents and visitors, and one that respects the needs and aspirations of the wider community. The landscape was not considered as a cosmetic addition to the environment, but an integrated part of the design, management and function of the development.
From a single point of access from Lovedon Lane, the masterplan for the houses clusters around a triangular open space in the upper part of the site – the Grove. An avenue featuring houses on both sides runs along the lower contours of the site, and re-defines the village edge of Kings Worthy against a generous new semi-natural greenspace of 4.6 hectares. This would act as an extension to the well-used Eversley Park Recreation Ground to the north of our site, which we carefully tied into.
The new parkland was designed as a low key, ecological landscape with an impressive area of native wildflower grassland, criss-crossed by naturalistic footpaths and a running circuit. Allotments, a bike track, and natural play area were designed to gently grade the new development into its countryside setting. Enhanced boundary planting of hedgerow plants and parkland trees also knits the parkland into its local area.
The project as a whole has been designed with local wildlife in mind. New habitats and movement corridors are being created, at varying scales within the park and housing areas; for birds, slow worms, bats, hedgehogs, invertebrates and swifts. Bat boxes, bird boxes and bee bricks are incorporated into the brick walls of the houses. The details of the landscape design were developed to really enhance the sense of home, and encourage interaction and community. Doorstop benches, terraces, calm shared surfaces, and informal meeting spaces all encourage interaction and an instant sense of ownership. Productive growing thresholds were also included to the front boundary of each home, to be planted with edible varieties. These, along with the allotments and planned orchard planting, aimed to encourage residents to participate in gardening and develop a community spirit.
“In marrying the formality of residential development with the freedom of nature it creates the perfect place to live, play and connect. It is beautiful, it is thoughtful… and a time when we urgently need trailblazers in sustainable inhabited landscapes it is hopeful…”
‘Overall Outstanding Winner’ at the 2022 Landscape Institute awards
“At HAB we are interested in the edge condition, in sites that occupy the threshold between countryside and town. So many towns and villages have wonderful historic centres but become increasingly anonymous and anodyne towards the settlement edge. Located between Kings Worthy and the South Downs National Park, the Lovedon Lane project offers an opportunity.
The challenge for BD was to design a landscape that mediates between these two different conditions; to reconcile the untamed informality of the open countryside with the intimate domestic spaces which anchor private houses within the public realm. The result is both dense and free; richly-detailed and fine-tuned but also effortless and relaxed; a project that defines the town as being ‘of’ its glorious rural setting, rather than detached from its surroundings by faceless suburban sprawl.”
Isabel Allen (Design Director, HAB Housing)
