Architecture for London has been appointed to design a cohousing scheme in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. The development will create ten sustainable new homes with a carbon-negative cross laminated timber structure, built to passivhaus standards.
Our architectural approach is inspired by George Devey, an architect working in Aylesbury in the Victorian period. Devey favoured a romantic style, borrowing from many eras and creating playful collages of Tudor, Gothic and Victorian architecture.
Devey used fragments of local limestone as a pedestal to build brick walls upon, suggesting that the buildings have emerged from ruin, a style that was subsequently imitated elsewhere in the local area.
By creating a series of ‘sunken paths’ within the site landscape, sight lines from neighbouring properties will be preserved, whilst also framing views of the surrounding countryside. The external landscape will provide a large recreation space, productive allotment garden and a wildlife habitat around an existing pond.
Project team: Amrit Marway and Alastair Mitchell
Current AFL housing projects can be viewed on our housing portfolio page.