RCKa’s scheme for specialist property developer PegasusLife, Park House in Harpenden, Hertfordshire has been granted permission. Situated between the town centre and Rothamsted Park, Park House replaces James Marshall House, unoccupied since 2002. The mid-rise scheme includes 38 apartments with communal facilities and a community cafe facing Rothamsted Park. All apartments are dual-aspect, 35 are two-bedroom homes and three are one-bedroom units.

The proposal features accommodation and facilities arranged across three separate pavilions, linked at ground floor with communal and community spaces. The pavilions are staggered in a landscape setting to reduce the development’s massing, resulting in a more permeable volume that integrates carefully with the local context. A staggered plan arrangement enhances the sense of open space and increases access to daylight. A colonnade, which unifies the ground floor of all three blocks, aids the visual connection between the buildings and the landscape. A central courtyard provides a community focus and an easily identifiable communal space at the heart of the site, encouraging social interaction. A new pedestrian route running to the south of the courtyard also connects key facilities. This provides essential landscape improvements in addition to improving accessibility and provides a much-needed link between the town centre and the park.

Park House responds to the townscape and landscape character in both form and material palette. Located at the heart of a conservation area, it is a development of white painted brick, with pitched roofs and gables in red clay tiles to reflect the local vernacular architecture. A varying selection of brick adds texture and interest to the elevations.