Transforming the town centre and reviving a sense of civic place and community, this regeneration scheme has gained support from the entire community. Currently dominated by a failed 1960s shopping centre, central Laindon is surrounded by dual carriage ways and traffic roundabouts.

Developer Swan Housing Association entrusted the development and delivery of the site jointly to Pollard Thomas Edwards and C.F. Møller. The team’s vision is to re-purpose and tame the existing highway infrastructure and return retail and activity to a new high street alongside improvements to the civic realm.

This co-location of diverse uses concentrates activity, delivering modern, flexible retail space, a new office for Swan, a new health centre and homes ranging from apartments to larger family houses. The team worked with Wayne Hemingway as retail design consultant on a robust and viable commercial proposal to help ensure long term sustainability.

Recalling the plotlands origins of Laindon, gabled, varied, small footprint buildings are assembled to become a town centre. A distinctive silhouette of clustering buildings is created, meeting the street as an identifiable shop or home. Swan has invested in an offsite factory close to the site, which will manufacture the buildings using Volumetric CLT modular construction.