Church End regeneration

Helping Brent Council and two housing associations hold a successful design competition to regenerate a run-down urban centre with growth area funding.

Church End is a run-down urban centre in Brent. London. It is undergoing improvements following a masterplan by Allies and Morrison that uses high quality urban design to create a stronger identity for the area.

The first step in implementing the masterplan was to redevelop a site by a dual carriageway owned by two housing associations. Catalyst Housing Group and Fortunegate Community Housing.

Growth area funding (GAFII) was secured to reconfigure the adjacent road and roundabout. This included access to a CABE enabler — a professional with relevant expertise — who was appointed in March 2006.

With support from the CABE enabler, the council and housing associations were able to write a clear brief and run a design competition to select the best architects for the development. Brent Council and the two housing associations saw the competition process as a success which challenged the winning architects to come up with their best ideas.

How the CABE enabler helped

• advised on organising a design competition for the project
• advised on writing a clear brief for the competition
• helped judge the entries according to relevant and agreed criteria.