It has been a joy to work with the team at Dartington Trust to present plans for a genuinely innovative residential scheme on Dartington Estate. Long known for its experimentation of ideas, practice and design including architecture, the Trust’s newest proposals make a timely contribution to the conversation around how Local Planning Authorities can simultaneously address a housing crisis and climate emergency.
The 45-dwelling scheme has been beautifully conceived through a collaboration of design pioneers who are renowned worldwide for their people-centred and landscape-led approach to the development of beautiful places: architects Rogers Stirk Harbour+Partners and landscape designer Dan Pearson Studios.
Together they have fused the modernist architecture of ‘The Dartington Experiment’ with the very latest advances in technology, materials, construction methods and landscaping practice to produce a scheme that delivers superior energy efficiency, adapts to and enriches its setting, and reduces local construction impact by 95%.
Our stakeholder engagement programme included a well-attended public exhibition, which stimulated some extremely intelligent and well-informed discussions about the future of sustainable and affordable housing in rural communities.
