The scheme is based around an Urban Living Room, the focus of communal everyday life for the homes and people gathered around it. It is defined by two blocks of accommodation, one housing key workers and one for the elderly. The idea is that this helps create a stable community during a person’s lifetime.

Both housing blocks are based on the principle of trading spaces, taking a small amount of space from each individual dwelling for use by the community. The size of the private dwelling is barely affected, but the payoff in terms of combined resources and events contributes to a more vital community. In the west block (for elderly people) this space forms an extended group living room providing the opportunity for the shared encounter. In the key-worker blocks, spaces from the smaller units are combined into additional communal rooms cantilevered from the north side of the building.