Developed for Central & Urban and JRL Group, Sparkle Street is a new high-quality build-to-rent development that will bring life to a disused site in the city centre.
The proposals envision the development of 359 residential homes within a 10-28 storey building, complemented by townhouses that activate the streetscape and knit into the surrounding area. The plans also include extensive residential gardens and a new street frontage, enhancing the overall area.
At ground level, an enlarged entrance space welcomes residents, providing opportunity for socialising whilst also doubling as a working space. On the upper floors, residents can access a communal garden, complete with seating areas and lawn spaces. Connected to internal amenity spaces, roof terraces are integrated to encouraging a variety of activities while providing panoramic views across the city, promoting relaxation and wellbeing, and fostering a strong sense of community.
The buildings have been designed as a series of connected vertical blocks. The volumes are of a similar width to the surrounding residential buildings, with the two taller volumes representing a “city scale” on the western edge of the site, before dropping back down to 10 storeys on the southern edge.
The scheme aims to embed the building within its local context, utilising traditional brick to reflect the dominant material of historic buildings in the area. The volumes are differentiated by their brick language. The larger volumes feature a monolithic appearance with light pink and red brick and matching flush mortar. The smaller volumes, responding to the neighbourhood scale, emphasise individual bricks with dark-recessed mortar and a darker pink / red / brown palette to create contrast, celebrating the rich heritage of the surrounding fabric.
The tallest tower is topped with a residents’ amenity space, maximised by the distinctive nature of the arched windows separating the space from the lower floors. The arches reflect the architectural vernacular of the area, signifying the spatial difference in an elegant manner.