Designers of beddington zero energy development, a housing complex about 20 kilometers from the center of London, have taken on the challenge of transforming suburbia.
Within its five blocks of terraced buildings and gardens, the development, nicknamed BedZED, includes 82 homes, 18 mixed work living units and 1,560 square meters of pure workspace. Its density is about 400 habitation rooms and 200 jobs per hectare. If that density were replicated throughout the U.K., it would cut urban sprawl by 75% and eliminate the need for development of greenfield sites, claims Bill Dunster, the project's locally based architect.