Plans for Pop-up homes on Lockner Estate? A clarification

We have had some emails from residents over the past few days about the articles which have been published this week saying that 'pop up homes' are planned for the garages on Lockner Estate, by Kingsland Road. The designs were drawn up by Levitt Bernstein architects, who are based in Kingsland Passage by Dalston Junction.

These designs were first publicised in October last year, but now seem to have been re-cycled by a number of newspapers.

At the time we tweeted the following:

On November 6th, we received the following email from Levitt Bernstein. It hopefully clarifies the situation in full:

Pop-Up HAWSE

We have just seen your Tweets regarding our Pop-up HAWSE concept.  We are very pleased you have come across the project and find it of interest.  We’d be very keen to meet with you and discuss it with you further if you feel this would be of value at an appropriate time.  We do need to clarify that, at this stage, the project it is currently only a concept and is not site specific.   The computer generated image of the transformed garages used against the recent press articles was created to illustrate the idea with the proposal to adopt in suitable sites across London.  Our apologies if this has caused any confusion. The Pop-up HAWSE concept enables people to learn new skills and transforms under-utilised or derelict spaces to create a temporary place to live, learn and work as a kick start project for the regeneration of the surrounding estate or wider area.

We are now working with the Building Trust International to move the project forward including establishing a design team and targeting suitable sites across London. We have had a great deal of interest in the concept so far and we would welcome the opportunity to meet and discuss opportunities in our local area.  Once we have confirmed our approach with the Building Trust International we plan to be in touch shortly with the Borough development team.

Lockner Estate TRA have also published a similar clarification that they have also received from Levitt Bernstein.

Whilst the plans are an interesting concept and an inventive way of addressing the lack of sites to build new housing in the borough Hackney Council and Hackney Homes have no plans to investigate this scheme further at this time.

In De Beauvoir ward, the Council is focusing its efforts on the regeneration of Colville Estate, just south of Regent's Canal. Once completed, the new Colville will contain 800 new homes - 400 replacing existing, dilapidated council houses and 400 brand new homes, some shared ownership and some private. The regeneration is entirely self-financing. You can read more about that scheme here.