Great news – Hazelhurst Court won a HAPPI Award at the Housing Design Awards last night! We were one of just seven award recipients in the 'completed' category, from a long list of 157 projects nationally. A big well done to the whole team, including Tony, Irene, Lotta, Kate and Joe C. The client, Phoenix Community Housing, is absolutely delighted for such recognition of their first new development.

Before the main event, I attended the HDA seminar focusing on ‘health and wellbeing in housing’. Matthew Lloyd presented their lovely Bourne Estate scheme (the eventual ‘supreme’ winner last night) in Clerkenwell, which infills new blocks into a listed estate to create new squares and enhance the existing public realm.

David Mikhail of Mikhail Riches presented their St Andrew's Riverside project in Tiverton. This shunned the traditional housing approach of a McCarthy & Stone scheme on the site, instead proposing a series of tight pedestrian lanes to create intimacy and character, and tie much more closely with the alleyways and tenement boundaries of the adjacent buildings.

Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios presented their new urban design-led village and work spaces in Kirkstall Forge, Leeds, which create a new train station to promote a modal shift in commuting into the city. The scheme targets high density in order to create more space for public realm elsewhere; working to the ratio of 6sqm of shared space for every 1sqm of housing. There were also good initiatives proposed on site, such as free cycle hire for residents.

Common themes running through all the presentations included the importance of quality ‘neighbour spaces’ and thresholds between public and private areas in order to help improve the connection to the outdoors and foster a sense of ownership for residents.