Best Community Living Winner

Canada Gardens is Quintain’s flagship BtR development and the largest site at the Wembley Park estate. The development will provide 743 tenure-blind apartments across seven buildings and is the first family-focussed development at Wembley Park, with a large number of three-bedroom homes. Some 303 of the apartments are affordable homes and 80 are wheelchair adaptable homes. As the affordable homes are distributed tenure blind throughout the development, all residents have access to the same shared facilities and exceptional service from
Quintain Living.

As owner and operator of what will be the largest single site of BtR in the UK, Quintain has the unique benefit of being able to form a continuous feedback loop from customers of previous Quintain Living BtR developments to the designers of future homes, such as Canada Gardens. This has ensured it is at the leading edge of customer experience and fully delivers on being a wonderful place to live, with excellent apartment design and a thoughtful amenity offering, which includes an acre of private podium gardens; a seven-acre park; resident allotments and greenhouse; work-from-home sheds; rooftop terrace with GIA of 4,618 sq ft; a pet park; a children’s play room and pirate ship; BBQ areas; a serviced clubhouse; a library; reading rooms with views across London; meeting rooms/ spaces to work from home; a super-lobby with a 24-hour concierge.

The development also includes an energy centre operating a district heating network to serve thousands of Wembley Park homes.

An exemplar BTR scheme that promotes diversity and inclusivity and is designed with great attention to detail, including numerous thoughtful features intended to delight the residents. The tenure-blind approach to amenity facilities is truly commendable. The range of amenities has clearly been designed with care, ensuring that there is something for all members of the family - the 'work from home sheds' are a particular favourite, bringing a sense of greener suburban living to a high density urban environment.

Best Community Living Highly Commended

Island Point by Squire & Partners, London

Island Point is a new residential development on Westferry Road, delivering high quality affordable homes to the area. The scheme provides 173 residential units in a group of low rise buildings. The community is centred on a new south facing garden square, framed by apartment blocks, townhouses and maisonettes.

Townhouses enjoy private gardens, and each apartment has its own external terrace. A community pavilion for use by residents and local groups is located in the centre of the site.
Designs reference local industrial buildings such as listed Burrells Wharf, employing brick as the primary material and metal detailing for windows and balconies, grouped vertically in bays.

Within this common architectural language, different expressions define the building types - maisonettes being arranged in pairs, townhouses expressed as individual units and apartments in larger warehouse style buildings.

Areas of green glazed bricks are used to bring interest and character to the development, the colour referencing the Blythe Burrell Colour Company Ltd which established its colour works on the nearby Millwall Iron Works in 1888.

Best Community Living Shortlist

Ten Degrees by Greystar, Oxted

Brio - Button House by Places for People, Preston

10 George Street by Vertus, London