Shottfield Close
84 units. Grey Belt. Planning Submitted.
The landscape-led narrative seeks to weave a continuous and engaging green corridor between Sandridge and Heartwood Forest, restoring ecological networks while creating a social spine for everyday life.
The outward-looking masterplan invites both existing and new residents to form a collective relationship with the landscape; where access to green space, ecological learning, and stewardship become central to the identity of the place.
The scheme provides 50% essential affordable homes alongside more than 2.5 acres of carefully designed communal green space, shaped as a new public park for residents and the wider community. This landscaped edge frames the boundary with Heartwood Forest, creating an active natural playscape that invites engagement with the environment while supporting health and well-being. The development also achieves an on-site Biodiversity Net Gain exceeding 18%.
ACRE – “The central aspiration for the development is to connect people and nature across the site. The design is rooted in creating a place that is both ecologically responsive and socially connected. Our masterplan brings forward a new neighbourhood that balances contemporary living with the character of its rural surroundings, placing landscape, ecology, and community at the heart of its design.”
ACRE – “The central aspiration for the development is to connect people and nature across the site. The design is rooted in creating a place that is both ecologically responsive and socially connected. Our masterplan brings forward a new neighbourhood that balances contemporary living with the character of its rural surroundings, placing landscape, ecology, and community at the heart of its design.”
The landscape-led concept interlaces play spaces within a softly structured terrain, dissolving the threshold between the development and its rural context. A layered, harmonious sequence of spaces is designed to weave together the character of Heartwood Forest and the village of Sandridge, creating a seamless connection between nature and community.
The architecture is conceived as a calm and refined backdrop to a series of green interstitial spaces that define the life of the scheme. Buildings frame rather than dominate, allowing the landscape to lead; shaping movement, outlook, and community interaction. This approach places everyday wellbeing at its core, encouraging active, sustainable family living within a setting where nature and architecture exist in quiet balance.
At the heart of the concept lies a tapestry of green connections, a network of landscape threads that guide the form and rhythm of the architecture. The buildings emerge in response, following the flow of these verdant links. Within this landscape, a series of distinctive spaces unfold, each offering opportunities for play, gathering, or quiet reflection. Together, they enrich the journey along the existing route, inviting more people to pause, explore, and share in the natural beauty of the surroundings.
