Contributor
Assemble

2015
Granby Four Streets - Liverpool - United Kingdom

As a form of regeneration masterplan and individual renovation of 10 houses, this project shows a ground-up approach to regeneration - working in the interest of the local community, not of the developer.
The project is the result of a hard-won, 20 year battle by local residents to save the houses from demolition - there are now just 70 residents clinging on in an area of 200 homes. The main factor behind the decline of the area was due to a lack of maintenance and investment - both issues which could have been avoided.
Of vital importance to retaining the community was to change perceptions, to view the houses as something valuable and deserving of maintenance - celebrating the value of the area’s architectural and cultural heritage.
This change of perception brought about consequences in behavior - residents reclaimed and planted their streets, painted the empty houses, organized a thriving monthly market and founded a Community Land Trust.
As part of a second phase of work, Assemble has imagined a spectacular winter garden within the empty brick shell of a gutted house - a form of conversion, breathing new life into dilapidated forms and providing new forms of public space.
The houses use simple and low cost materials, often recycled, and include a number of playful, handmade architectural elements that help re-establish the character of the homes following their long neglect. A form of material and gestalt recycling can be seen in the new fireplaces - cast with debris collected from derelict properties, helping to reestablish the character of the homes following long neglect.

[project selected by Dominic Murray-Vaughan]

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Architecture as Resource / Imprint