ASH blog: ASH texts on West Ken and Gibbs Green

Campaign blog: Residents' campaign

Summer 2015, residents of West Ken and Gibbs Green Estates in Earls Court, London, approached Geraldine Dening with Architects for Social Housing to work with them to explore alternatives to demolition.

The estates are currently threatened with demolition by the developer CAPCO as the result of the sale of land by Hammersmith and Fulham Council. These proposals form part of the residents' application for a Right To Transfer into community ownership.

ASH organised a series of consultations throughout Autumn 2015, which included walks through the estate, and design, refurbishment and landscape workshops, and exhibitions.

The current scheme - which has been included in a business plan for the management and ownership for the estates - includes several hundred new homes of varying sizes which are both infill and roof extensions, as well as a series of community facilities, and landscape improvements.

Funded by the new homes, the existing homes are all to be refurbished, to incorporate additional insulation, improved ventilation strategies, and winter gardens added to the existing tower, as well as numerous public realm and landscape improvements, some of which are already being undertaken.

The scheme is currently being reviewed by the Secretary of State, and the residents await their decision.