Design for Harlow, an Essex new town under major growth: residential, commercial and community schemes shaped for regeneration and expansion.
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A planned new town being both regenerated and expanded, Harlow asks good design to read where a site sits, be it the post-war core, an established neighbourhood or a growth area on the edge. Our architectural design service works across that, shaping residential, commercial and community schemes for their specific site. Concept work reads the setting, the town's distinctive planned structure of neighbourhoods and green wedges, and its policy, testing what a site can carry, often after feasibility work has established the constraints. Developed design resolves massing, materials and character for a town renewing tired post-war stock while adding substantial new development. Because Harlow District Council decides applications under its own local plan, and growth is guided by the wider garden-town programme, a scheme is drawn for the way the town judges proposals, with the same standards the practice brings to its funded public work. The result is design that respects Harlow's new-town identity where it matters and helps deliver its regeneration and expansion well.
The design team explores options and massing, sets a sustainability approach, and prepares an order-of-cost estimate. Early conversations with planners may begin. By the end of this stage there's a preferred concept that meets the brief and budget.
Design moves from ideas to a coordinated layout. Architecture, structure and building services are aligned so rooms, risers, fire strategy and servicing all work together. The result is a frozen arrangement with updated cost and risks understood.
Look at the whole processWith a conversation about the site and the ambition. A note through the contact form or to info@aecarchitecture.co.uk covering the location, the brief as it stands and the budget lets AEC respond. The first discussion establishes where the site sits in the town, core, neighbourhood or growth edge, the planning history, the constraints and the opportunities within them, and a written scope follows: a full appointment from concept through planning and technical design, or a defined stage. Fees pair with the scope and are agreed before drawing begins. Design develops through options and reviews, with decisions recorded, so the scheme that reaches Harlow District Council carries its reasoning and its response to context with it, ready for the scrutiny a growing new town applies.
The town was built as a planned new town and is now being regenerated and expanded, and the Academy Estate Consultants group keeps planning judgement beside the design team. A scheme is shaped for that context, its neighbourhood structure, its green wedges and its growth ambition, from concept rather than late.
Sitting within the practice's home county, Harlow is reached easily from Billericay, so sites are walked and the council engaged directly. Understanding how Harlow District Council balances regeneration of the existing town with its garden-town growth keeps early advice grounded in how it really decides.
Feasibility, planning, technical design and construction support all follow design within one practice, so a Harlow scheme runs from first sketch to finished building without changing hands. Continuity keeps the design intent intact through the process a growing new town applies.
By reading the planned logic of the place and working with it rather than against it. Harlow was laid out as distinct neighbourhoods separated by green wedges, with a clear hierarchy of centres and routes, and good design in the town understands where a site sits in that structure: reinforcing a neighbourhood centre, respecting a green wedge, or extending the pattern into a growth area. In the post-war core, regeneration replaces tired stock while keeping what gives the town its character, including any protected mid-century buildings and spaces. On the growth edges, new development is shaped to read as a considered extension of the town, not a detached estate, connecting to the existing structure of movement and green space. Each is tested against the specific policies an officer will cite, with the planning and approvals team involved before submission. In a new town balancing its planned heritage against ambitious growth, design that understands the original structure is what delivers change that belongs, which is what the practice brings to Harlow.
Kennet School (BREEAM)
Thatcham
Single‑storey replacement block providing six classrooms, designed to achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating. AEC led early design coordination with the assessor, progressed to Building Regulations drawings and oversaw construction.
View projectConcept and developed design: site analysis, brief development, option testing, then plans, elevations and the material and character decisions that fix a scheme. In Harlow that means reading the town's planned new-town structure and its growth areas closely. The service reaches a planning-ready design and can continue through technical stages. Scope is agreed in writing.
Harlow District Council determines applications for the town under its own local plan, with Essex County Council handling strategic matters such as minerals, waste and its own education schemes, and the wider garden-town programme guiding major growth. Design is shaped for the council's policies and the way it weighs regeneration against expansion.
Yes. The town's planned structure of neighbourhoods, green wedges and centres, and its protected mid-century buildings and spaces, guide where and how development sits. Good design reads that structure and works with it, be it reinforcing a centre, respecting a green wedge or extending the pattern into a growth area, rather than ignoring what makes the town distinctive.
Yes. Much of Harlow's development is expansion under the garden-town programme, and schemes there are designed to read as a considered extension of the town, connecting to its existing movement and green structure rather than sitting apart. Feasibility usually comes first on a larger growth site to establish what it can carry.
Against a written scope: the stages included, the building's size and complexity and the consultant team around it. Regeneration or growth-area sites often need more design and evidence work, which the scope reflects. Fixed fees suit defined stages; staged fees suit full appointments. The basis is recorded and accepted before design begins.
AEC arranges a conversation about the site, its place in the town, the brief and the budget, then issues a written scope and fee proposal for the stages suggested. Nothing is committed until the client accepts it. Work then opens with site and context analysis, and the first design options follow for discussion.
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