New Oxford Affordable Housing Princes Street

The Princes Street development forms part of Oxford City Council’s East Oxford Community Sites programme delivered through its housing company, OX Place. Located just off Cowley Road, the scheme transforms a previously underused urban site into a high-quality residential development providing 12 new homes for social rent. OA were appointed as Delivery Architects for RIBA Stage 4 onwards.

The development comprises a three-storey L-shaped apartment building containing six one-bedroom and six two-bedroom dwellings arranged around a shared communal garden. The design responds carefully to the surrounding residential context, incorporating a setback to the northern elevation along Princes Street to create a stepped transition between the neighbouring two-storey terraced houses and the larger three-storey community centre.

The building utilises a traditional construction approach and has been designed with a simple and robust architectural language that integrates comfortably within the established streetscape. A flat roof to the front section of the building helps reduce the perceived mass of the development when viewed from the street, while also enabling the installation of photovoltaic panels across both sections of the roof.

Accessibility has been a key consideration within the design, with ground floor apartments designed to meet Building Regulations M4(3) wheelchair accessibility standards, including wet rooms, while the upper floor dwellings comply with M4(2) accessible and adaptable requirements.