The Malings

Ash Sakula has been engaged with the future of the Ouseburn Valley for ten years, combining hundreds of conversations in pubs, streets and homes - “loitering with intent” - with formal consultation and collaboration.

The design of The Malings grew out of understanding what was happening there in combination with a radical approach to place-making and housing design.

Our new streets run down the contours of the valley towards the river, rather than across the slope, following desire lines to connect into surrounding neighbourhoods.

Avoiding the expected apartment block typologies, we shaped a neighbourhood of houses and streets forming sequences of spaces of varying character.

Its simple, syncopated architecture of brick walls and windows has hidden subtleties, curving with the landscape and avoiding straight repetition.

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The Malings blends traditional terraced street typologies with a combination of courtyard dwellings, back-to-backs and six-storey tower houses.

We also developed a variant of the local Tyneside Flat in the form of stacked duplexes. No two homes are identical and every home has its own front door onto the street, as well as either a small garden or a large roof terrace.

A genuine sense of cohesion and engagement has been nurtured by Ash Sakula’s characteristically convivial approach to outdoor and communal spaces, which treats cycle stores and recycling areas as opportunities to promote informal encounters between people and promotes shared resources such as communal allotments.

A successful addition to the scheme is a craftsman-made feasting table where residents hold diverse parties and events.

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Street frontages alternate between three and four storeys. The three storey parts, with one front door, contain a single dwelling. The four storey elements, with two front doors, house stacked duplexes, each with its own front door.

There are no lifts, corridors or common stairs. Net to gross is 100%, reducing build costs and meaning lower service charges for residents.

Back gardens and shared garden plots are terraced across the steep slopes of the site.

The scheme we devised increased the number of units on site beyond the original requirement. Its design has delivered a commercial uplift: all homes sold at prices higher than anticipated.

Its unusual design typologies, with no common parts, reduced both build cost and service charges.

It has attracted a particularly lively, diverse and creative-minded community of residents who readily engage in the thriving residents’ association and contribute creatively to the cultural invigoration of the area.

The Malings has kickstarted the regeneration of the Ouseburn Valley. Since its completion a thriving combined pottery/café and a microbrewery/beer garden have opened. Neighbouring sites are being developed with additional new homes.