Boots has a long history as a philanthropic organisation, and in the spirit of this the Residential Quarter site on former Boots land presents an opportunity to create a “model village” for healthy living. This is a place where people will want to settle and stay, with close ties to the employment community on site and to shared facilities.

The vision for the Residential Quarter is to be a new green and distinctive place to live by the edge of Beeston canal. The health and wellbeing legacy from Boots will be reinterpreted to deliver healthy lifestyle opportunities, and the local heritage will be referenced to create identities, character and cohesion.

The scheme will provide approx. 622 new homes, all of which shall be delivered to Future Homes standards using the selected MMC technology, with EPC rating of A and in accordance with the end clients carbon and energy targets. The development will be made up of a mix of 2 and 3 storey homes, as well as four 4 storey apartment buildings. The size of the scheme will make it the UK’s largest low-rise modular housing development.

Dice was instructed to undertake the detailed civil & structural design associated with RIBA work stages 02 – 06 respectively. This resulted in the management of numerous challenges encountered with developments on brownfield sites which are surrounded by existing homes - whilst also balancing the specific technical requirements of the modular home design across multiple house types.

The development overlooks the Beeston Canal to the South East, placing the site in Flood Zone 3. While this adds extra benefits in terms of the landscape design, extra care had to be taken when devising the External Works and Private Drainage.