PTE was appointed to replace a 1970s apartment building based around a mature communal garden. It had been built as self-contained, non-supported housing, although many of the permanent tenants had become very elderly. Our aim was to enable all those residents to remain living on the site during and after the redevelopment, which was phased to allow this to happen, and to provide suitable new homes for them within the overall design. The scheme also creates additional affordable and shared ownership homes suitable for families. We met with the existing tenants every six weeks to consult on design options. Discussions included the overall site arrangement and location of homes for existing residents and family homes for new and younger residents; the layout of individual flats for existing residents; and the future of the existing communal garden - one of the challenges of the design was to ensure that our design preserved this garden.