Living with the city Part 2 Project 1999 Nicholas Cordingley University of Brighton | UK The development of the thesis design was initiated with a design research document focusing on theoretical solution to ecologically balanced dwellings.This information led to the evolution of the brief.The primary aim of the thesis design was to develop a sustainable regeneration within an urban context. The site for the scheme is Paddington Basin which provided an exciting context locked between the Westway and St Marys Hospital.The design approach was to assess the lifestyle of the individual within the context of the city. The scheme provides a place to live which creates a sense of community through the collective aspiration of its inhabitants to pursue a sustainable lifestyle.The language of the architecture is driven by the reassessment of the integrated systems that create the sustainable dwelling. The Westway's hinterland takes few prisoners in its destructive sweep accross the fabric of central London yet there remains in its streets a tough no-nonsense architecture of imperious strength offering locations for dramatic life.Nick's approach to the design of housing on the Paddington Basin captures the grit and edginess of that background. Determined to avoid the cliched applied eco-styling now commonly used to impress that energy consciousness is somehow present and hopefully working-Nick's design integrates both an aesthetic and sustainability imperative, rationalising and realising architecture as a forceful unity of place and building. The result is a welcome return to a cool unselfconscious architecture which embraces the ordinary everyday of places for people to live out the possibility of extraordinary lives.