Becontree Avenue, Dagenham

2025 RIBA London Award 

Becontree Avenue, Barking & Dagenham, London
Archio for Be First (London Borough of Barking and Dagenham)
Contract value: £5.1 million
GIA: 1,735m²
Cost per m²: £2,940

In a housing sector development climate where creating affordable housing with real architectural character is such a tough challenge, Becontree Avenue stands out as an exemplar.

The close relationship between Archio and commissioning client Be First – Barking and Dagenham Council’s regeneration arm – was clear to see, and the architect’s passion for this commission stood out. The sense of collective ambition to provide good-quality housing for the local authority made the project successful in the face of many challenges.

The scheme draws on thorough research into the history and housing typologies of the Becontree Estate on which it sits. The estate is low-rise, embodying garden city principles, and dates from the 1920s-30s. It is considered to be the largest original social housing scheme in Europe. The team’s research has resulted in a detailed understanding of and sensitivity to the local vernacular, which it adeptly translated and updated. The result is a development that combines playfulness with serious architectural ambition, without ever straying into pastiche. This is seen in the disposition of windows, the adoption of arches over entrances and the soaring eaves lines.

The ingenious three-dimensional composition of the two separate blocks shows off a clear skill in the apartment layouts, where there is variety and specificity. Nineteen new homes are provided, resulting in a density that is five times that of the existing estate, yet achieved without any sense of overdevelopment. Rather, the project is joyful and thoughtfully composed, creating homes with architectural distinction that feel highly contextual. Many of the upper-floor apartments have large, inset balconies and, remarkably, all of them are triple-aspect.

The two villas sit harmoniously on their corner site, responding specifically to different boundary conditions. The larger of the two is four storeys, its eaves line ascending upwards to add grandeur on the main road elevation, then sweeping down to acknowledge the scale of its immediate neighbour.

The blocks’ front doors are opposite each other in a small area of semi-private landscape, creating a sense of neighbourly threshold in front of the double-height recessed entrance. It is details like these that elevate the scheme from the norm, and show the keenness of the architect to create something of distinction on a limited budget. A ‘play street’, which forms a clear pedestrian route, has been provided outside the site boundary as a result of consultation. The essential provisions of bin stores and plant rooms (for the air-source heat pumps added partway through construction) are discreetly dealt with in matching brick enclosures.

Here, shared vision and commitment have resulted in a contextual and memorable public housing scheme, built on a limited budget, that ought to be a blueprint for building affordable homes that are so desperately needed.

See the rest of the 2025 RIBA London winners here. And all our RIBA UK Award winners here.

View the full RIBA UK Awards 2025 process.

 

RIBA Regional Awards 2025 sponsored by Autodesk, EH Smith, Equitone and Velux