RIBA launches design competition for Mansfield homes

RIBA has launched a design competition for the housing-led redevelopment of part of Mansfield town centre, which the borough’s elected mayor says has been “crying out to be resurrected”.

The project brief seeks a multi-disciplinary design team to create a “sensitive residential scheme” on a 0.69ha site that is primarily bounded by White Hart Street and Dame Flogan Street.

RIBA said Mansfield District Council is targeting homes for older people and families for the site, which sits within a conservation area and contains a listed building and non-designated heritage assets.

The project brief does not indicate the number of new homes being sought by the authority, but it does refer to an existing outline consent for the site dating back to 2019.

That scheme, which was drawn up by Newark practice Jackson Design Associates, proposed 145 residential units and 3,500sq m of retail, leisure and office space through four new buildings of up to five storeys in height and the reuse of five existing structures.

Executive mayor of Mansfield Andy Abrahams said the district council wanted to find an architect who is “sensitive” about the area’s history and excited about designing new housing that would stand the test of time.

“White Hart Street is an important area close to the town centre which has been crying out to be resurrected into something that combines the old with the new and which will breathe new life into an area which has been run-down and largely derelict for many years,” he said.

Teresa Borsuk, of Pollard Thomas Edwards, is RIBA’s architect adviser for the competition.

The application deadline is midday on 15 February.