The association’s head of investment & asset management Paul Leask recently accepted the Development of the Year award for its Houlland Lea project from Sally Thomas, chief executive of SFHA, and Dougie Mackie, chairperson for the Rural & Islands Housing Association Forum (RIHAF), during its conference in October.

Paul Leask said: “I am delighted to be accepting this award, which was up against some really tough opposition, for Rural Development of the year. These twelve new family homes have been designed and constructed to a very high standard and it’s great when you finally get to see the lights on and the families moving into the community. It’s nice to get recognition for all the hard work the entire team have put into this project and reinforces our existing commitment to meeting the needs of our communities.”

The scheme was designed by PJP Architects LLP and Mott MacDonald engineers, with the quantity surveying services provided by John Duguid Partnership. The construction work was completed by David Smith Building Contractors and the Scottish Government provided £1.8m in grant support.

The architect Ian Irvine said: “With the design, we wanted to create a place that would not only serve the new houses at Houlland Lea, but also encourage pedestrian links to existing nearby housing. This was done by providing a shared surface area through the site, with the main space in the heart of the development accessed from Houlland Road.

This space is for children to play and people to meet and is designed to slow down traffic. This is achieved with the introduction of timber planters, some with built-in seating, and low-level landscaped areas.”

The association’s King Harald Street project was commended recently in the Highlands + Islands Architectural Associations social benefit award category.

The site was a largely disused plot within the conservation area in the centre of Lerwick. The central location provided convenient access to town centre amenities and public transport, so the decision was taken early on, in agreement with Planning and the local Roads department, not to provide car parking within the site.

The design approach split the development into three separate buildings which replicate the scale and pattern of the large traditional stone-built houses to the Southwest of the site. Behind this three-storey street front the buildings stepped down in height to two storeys to avoid overshadowing the neighbouring properties to the rear and also to replicate the pattern in the surrounding streets of large houses with smaller but substantial extensions to the rear.

This was a new category introduced to award social benefit for either new or existing buildings with the judges commenting on “the car free landscape, simple planning appropriate for context with clean lines and thoughtfully laid out interiors”.

The scheme was designed by PJP Architects LLP and Mott MacDonald engineers, with the quantity surveying services provided by John Duguid Partnership. The construction work was completed by DITT Construction Ltd, and the Scottish Government provided £3.2m in grant support.

The architect Karen Manson said: “With its location in the heart of the Conservation Area and directly opposite the very prominent Category B Listed Islesburgh Community Centre the site presented a challenge but also a unique opportunity to bring some new life to what had become a fairly derelict site. We were keen to create a strong frontage to the street to reflect the scale and pattern of the surrounding buildings and used this to provide shelter and privacy for the spaces behind. We are delighted with the end result and feel that the new buildings sit comfortably within the existing street, providing a contemporary new addition to King Harald Street but one which is sensitive to its surroundings.”

Ian Irvine added:  “It’s great that these projects have received recognition. The success of both was not only built on the knowledge, skills, and hard work of the design team, but also that of Hjaltland Housing Association and the two contractors, all of which contribute to delivering quality housing developments for Shetland.”