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New home thoughts from abroad

Cheryle Markosky looks at foreign influences on developments being built in the UK

Wednesday 25 September 2002 00:00 BST
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When you hear the word "Dallas", images of a swaggering JR Ewing in a 10-gallon hat with his gin-sodden wife Sue Ellen on the terrace of their vulgar Southfork mansion might appear.

However, somewhat more tasteful and even practical notions often come from the United States and Europe. UK developer CDC2020 has the Centex Corporation as its parent company. And Centex, a Fortune 500 company valued at $8bn (£5.15bn), is based in Dallas, Texas. Good ideas from the United States are creeping into new homes here through links such as these with companies far away from our shores.

Nick Smith, CDC2020's chief executive, says that conditions in the US, particularly in terms of availability of land, are very different from here. He adds that one of the things his Centex colleagues find hard to believe is "the complexity of our planning system, which involves a huge amount of time and resources".

Smith believes that while the detail might not always be directly transferable, there are a number of aspects that are impressive, and that UK developers are learning and implementing in new homes this side of the pond. He has discovered the American house builder concept of "placemaking", for instance, which roughly translates into "creating a place rather than just houses where you live. This means a more managed approach to the overall environment and it does have important implications for design."

So how does placemaking actually work? People do not just buy an apartment, according to Smith. They buy an apartment in a place, and that place is created by courtyards, landscaped areas, entrance halls and common spaces. Placemaking is in evidence at Nautilus, a CDC2020 development in Worthing, where Smith says they have consciously set out to provide "a larger-than- normal entrance area with real ambience, where all the residents can meet and generally use as a communal extension of their individual apartment".

House builders typically try to minimise common spaces, as you can't sell them. Therefore placemaking could be regarded by some as more of an expensive bit of frippery, rather than a key tool for erecting developments.

In addition, Smith is trying to get away from the English approach of solely looking at usable floor space. Thinking in cubic feet is another way of creating three-dimensional spaces with double-height hallways and living rooms, and galleries and balconies opening up above.

Foreign influences on British housing can be viewed mainly in financial terms, like Hutchison Whampoa's Hong Kong investment in Sir Norman Foster's striking Albion Riverside on the south side of the Thames. However, aesthetics from another land can invade our island, as the rapid sales of First Penthouse's Swedish penthouses at Albert Court in London's South Kensington demonstrated.

Linden Homes has gone one step further, sending a fact-finding group from the UK to the US to view anything from grandiose suburban schemes to urban high- and low-rise developments. The visitors discovered timber balconies and decking, wood cladding, under-floor heating, as well as interesting use of plots, creating courtyards rather than just backyards. This more radical garden layout has been implemented in Linden's new scheme, £140m Queen Elizabeth Park at Guildford.

Chris O'Sullivan, managing director of Linden Homes South-east, says: "We have a lot to learn from each other. But the Americans are better at managing customers. They involve buyers more in the selling process, invite them in for meetings and explain what is going on. They get to see where the power points are going to be installed and where telephone lines are routed before the plaster goes on the walls."

O'Sullivan was equally impressed with a website set up specially for developments, where new residents could log on and arrange a night out and compare notes about the best local restaurants. The technology isn't quite here yet, but when it is, O'Sullivan wants to establish a similar site in Linden's next development.

Some developments have a synchronicity of home and abroad. Barratt Homes' Dettingen Park has a very regal urban Georgian "circus" central crescent of townhouses clustered round an open English expanse of garden with a bridge crossing a lake in a new £80m development near Camberley, Surrey. But a few blocks away, detached houses are laid out in grid style in true blue suburban fashion.

Barratt Southern chairman David Pretty recognises you need to supply "something for everybody", from the four- and five-bed townhouses starting at £435,000 to £446,000 for detached four-bed houses. With three different architects and styles it affords more choice.

Copthorn Homes (01322 386593) embraced East Coast American living first with clapboard clad exteriors on houses in Beaulieu Park, Essex, and now with "bringing the outside in" at Waterstone Park in Stone, near Dartford, Kent. Copthorn has managed to make a four-bed detached house of 1,860 sq ft, for instance, feel more spacious by letting the living area spill back to the full-width conservatory that easily accesses the terrace through tall sliding doors. (Prices range from £182,000 to £370,000.)

Sales and marketing director Neil Armstrong says that by "making the ground floor open plan and adding an extra half height to the conservatory, you get a circular motion through the house".

First Quantum has launched highly chic three-bed-plus townhouses from £640,000 to £995,000 at Caranday Villas on the edge of Notting Hill, that look like something out of the latest Almodóvar film.

First Quantum's Chris Ackley, an American who takes advice from his Danish wife, who likes contemporary design, says they were influenced by warmer climes where palm trees sway in the breeze. "Many couples are a mix of two cultures and want something just that bit different," he says, "while some are just comfortable with what they grew up with."

Ian Marris, from Knight Frank's residential department, believes that lots of UK developers have fed off Baltimore Harbour in places like London's Docklands, and this concept has rolled out to Sydney and even Cape Town.

"There is a natural synergy between commercial and residential, where you have 24/7 environments," he says. However, he adds that you need a critical residential mass to make the commercial side a success, and schemes like west London's Chelsea Harbour were not initial successes because of "bad timing and not getting the constituent parts right".

Although we have followed an urban New York trend in many places, Marris thinks "logical living" isn't from any one country. He adds that often we would like to go further with ideas like open-plan living, but our building regulations won't allow it.

The emphasis is on "opulent, very selfish, empty-nester/bachelor in oversized two- to three-bed flats" in Trevor Square, a Crown Dilmun (020-7598 4004) development (funded by the Bank of Bahrain) across from Harrod's in Knightsbridge. Marris says he is selling these at a hefty £1,250 per square foot with American fridge freezers and other toys foreigners want, as they are used to different standards.

At the end of the day, maybe the rest of the world can learn from us too. O'Sullivan says the Americans were impressed by the variety of buildings in Britain, and Marris thinks UK markets can be more sophisticated. "Most of Europe is behind us, as they have more feudal rural developments, with a huge difference between rural and urban," he says. "Here there is more of a blend. And once you create curb appeal, the rest is a self-fulfilling prophecy."

OUTSIDE INFLUENCES

* For a US flavour to your new flat, CDC2020 Nautilus (0845 8502020), in Worthing is offering two-bedroom apartments, with prices starting at £195,000. Alternatively, Laing and Linden Homes (08000 858438/01883 334400) have used ideas from California and Boston in their £140m Queen Elizabeth Park development in Guildford. Prices range from £215,000-£625,000

If you want to stay true to your roots, but incorporate some elements from over the Atlantic, Barratt Homes (01252 838814/ 838514) in Dettingen Park has homes ranging from £435,000-£446,000. Their "mixture of urban and suburban living" is a hybrid from both countries.

* Scandinavian style resides at First Penthouse's Albert Court development, through Sotheby's International (020-7598 1600). Only one four-bed apartment is still for sale at the Scandinavian princely sum of £1.9m.

* Finally, Spanish Villas have come to Notting Hill. First Quantum's (020-8749 0833) Caranday Villas through Foxtons: range from £640,000-£995,000. Decking and palm trees abound – not what you normally associate with a rain-soaked, grey Shepherd's Bush roundabout.

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