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Work, Live, Play at Lifford

Part 1 Project 2025
Renia Downes
 Birmingham City University | UK
As funding collapsed across Birmingham, so did many of the quiet systems that once made neighbourhoods feel safe and alive. Cuts to housing, infrastructure, and waste services left streets emptier, less visible, and less cared for, undermining the informal watchfulness that used to define public life. Lifford is one of those places, a site of industrial memory now overwhelmed by fly-tipping and disuse. This project does not erase that history. Instead, it layers over it with care, allowing past, present, and future to coexist. Work, recreation, and movement return to the site, alongside strategies to address its current issues. At WLPL, we do not just offer housing. We offer community. A network of shared spaces, walkable links, and interwoven nodes encourages relationships to grow. Residents recycle together, attend workshops at the centre, picnic near the reservoir, and grow food in the shared greenhouse.

The recycling centre is an economic and
symbolic engine, turning waste into value. Nearby, permanent watch pods provide natural surveillance and anchor presence on a site long overlooked.

This is not just about providing homes. It is about rebuilding trust in space, people, and shared responsibility. WLPL is a story of repair, told through timber and time.

Tutor(s)
Oliver Chapman
Max Karlsson Wisotsky
2025
Cover Exterior Visual A render showing the housing and bridge structure from the reservoir edge expresses the possibilities for interactions and play, communicating the atmosphere of WLPL.
01 Axonometric Housing Scheme An axonometric drawing showing housing pods within the timber frame highlights spatial relationships between living, work, and structure.
02 Heterotopic Site Strategy Site plan showing layered strategies of visibility and occupation along Lifford Reservoir’s edge.
03 Floor Plans Plans showing the ground floor of the maisonettes alongside the integrated community recycling centre. Positioned at the core of the scheme, the centre supports social infrastructure and circular economy principles.
04 Floor Plans – Social Infrastructure Shared amenities and access routes embedded into the housing plan to support social presence and neighbourliness.
05 Elevation and Section Sectional drawing showing the assembly of prefabricated pods and cladding, illustrating spatial layering and materiality.
06 Tectonic Detail Detailed junction showing the light tunnel.
07 Structural Relationships Diagram showing the integration of the timber frame, pods, and overhead crane system for site-wide distribution and adaptability.
08 Environmental Section Sectional drawing showing daylight strategies, passive ventilation, and overlapping functions within the scheme.
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