The Building Awards, now in their 21st year, are widely recognised as the sector’s most prestigious awards for excellence. Clusters of new homes designed by Pollard Thomas Edwards (PTE) on the edge of picturesque market town Saffron Walden reflect local traditions and settle into the mature landscape and surrounding conservation area. The Avenue creates 76 new mixed tenure homes ranging from one-bedroom apartments to five-bedroom detached houses. Friends’ School selected Hill and PTE through a competitive process to deliver a viable residential development on part of their school site to fund a new junior school and improvements to their existing main school building. The scheme responds sensitively to its mature landscaped context. It creates a series of character areas which reflect the pattern and character of the neighbouring townscape and also maintains and enhances the intrinsic qualities of the site. The heart of the scheme is a retained avenue of mature lime trees. The challenge was to create, by suburban standards, quite a dense development to achieve a financially viable scheme. The Avenue has achieved the commercial objectives and the required density, yet still created a sense of individuality for each home.