From balconies shaped by religious traditions to inclusive play spaces, Tower Court shows what’s possible with inclusive design and planning. We went to Hackney to see this award-winning housing project.
The Tower Court project in Clapton Common delivered 130 new homes and vibrant public spaces that put children, families, and cultural life at its heart. This successful development is testimony to successful inclusive design.
As home to one of Europe’s largest Charedi (Haredi) Jewish communities, Stamford Hill is shaped by deep religious observance, large multi-generational families, and unique spatial needs that rarely fit standard housing models.
The project was developed by Hackney Council with community engagement specialist Daisy Froud, MUF Architecture/Art, Adam Khan Architects and John Stebbing Architects as expert advisor to the Haredi community.
For our Happy London project, we led a field trip to find out about the project’s approach to culturally sensitive design. We met Potter Raper director Tom Rose, the lead employer’s agent on Tower Court since RIBA Stage 1.
Tom recalled his first visit eight years ago, sifting through rubble from the old estate and exploring The Folly to understand its potential. From an early polystyrene model to sharing a successful project with many colleagues, Tom set the tone for our visit by discussing the challenges, opportunities, and achievements that shaped Tower Court’s journey.
“Tower Court is the best scheme I have ever worked on because of the joy and beauty that we’ve managed to build into this place.”
Tom Rose, Potter Raper
Inclusive design with co-creation and trust
Tower Court represents a shift in Hackney Council’s approach to regeneration. From earlier projects like Woodberry Down, the council saw that a ‘business as usual’ planning process risked excluding communities — especially culturally rich hotspots like Stamford Hill.
As Angela Jones, Project Manager Regeneration at Hackney Council explained, they focused on prioritising relationship-building and embedding cultural intelligence into the design process. This approach proved that tailoring to a specific community doesn’t mean excluding others but can instead be a path to deeper inclusion.
Hackney Council brought in Tom Stebbing, Director at John Stebbing Architects and a member of Hackney’s Design Review Panel, to lead community engagement. With strong experience working with Orthodox Jewish communities, Stebbing and his team created trust by working directly with rabbis, residents, and local organisations to lead informed and culturally sensitive decisions.
One of the most significant outcomes was the incorporation of an eruv — a symbolic boundary that allows carrying on the Sabbath. Far more than stringing a wire in the sky, the team coordinated closely across planning, policy, insurance, and legal departments to make it happen, producing what may be the UK’s first formal method statement for an eruv.
As Stebbing noted: “Our job was not to make a scheme for the Orthodox Jewish community, but to make a scheme where Orthodox Jews feel as welcome as anyone else.” While the design responds closely to Charedi life, its benefits go much wider – supporting residents of all backgrounds.
Small design details, big impact on everyday life
At Tower Court, Hackney embedded several small but thoughtful design features, showing how culturally responsive housing can improve quality of life for everyone.
We met Liza Fior, Partner at MUF architecture/art. She walked us through the design approach and helped us see how these subtle but meaningful choices made a real difference.
In larger properties, plumbing has been installed to let residents fit sinks in their hallways, enabling handwashing at their doorstep — a key ritual in Orthodox Jewish daily life.
Open-plan kitchens make it easier for larger families to cook and eat together. In addition, flexible partitions in larger units allow residents to host bigger gatherings, further supporting the social lives and cultural practices.
Other subtle touches like daylit stairwells, textured brickwork, and mosaics by local artists added warmth and identity to shared spaces. Instead of fences, large movable pots lined brass studs in the ground to mark private areas—keeping the estate open and welcoming while giving residents privacy.
“It’s about noticing the details that make people feel seen. If you get that right, you create places that feel like they were made for someone, not just built for anyone”
says Liza of MUF architecture/art.
When building codes meeting religious observance
Balconies presented a complex challenge due to the Jewish festival of Sukkot, an annual event where residents construct temporary structures (sukkahs) open to the sky. While MUF Architects’ landscape vision was already sympathetic to this requirement, it still demanded a balance between religious needs, aesthetic cohesion, and compliance with modern building codes.
Fire safety changes after Grenfell raised extra concerns about using the Sukkah balconies, prompting Hackney to advise residents against their use because of combustibility risks.
However, Sukkot is a vital aspect of Orthodox Jewish life, so simply asking residents not to use the Sukkahs was not successful. Hackney responded by adopting a risk-managed model, which provided safety guidance in collaboration with the London Fire Brigade, London Ambulance Service, and Shomrim – the Jewish community’s neighbourhood watch.
This move built a new, trusting partnership between the Charedi community, their religious practices, and emergency services – a groundbreaking milestone.
“We realised it wasn’t a choice for residents — they had to do it (Sukkot),” said Angela Jones of Hackney Council. “So we moved our focus from trying to prevent it to managing it.”
Tom Rose highlighted another key challenge in balancing safe-by-design standards with Shabbat compliance. GLA guidelines required secure entry systems using electronic fobs that trigger electric circuits – violating Shabbat rules.
At Tower Court, they negotiated with the Secured by Design – a police advisory that improves security around developments – to install manual keys for Shabbat use. This allowed all residents to maintain high security standards while respecting Jewish religious practices.
Delivering with care through challenge
Tower Court proves what can be achieved through genuine cultural dialogue and persistence, as its delivery tested how well those values could hold under pressure.
The site itself posed serious logistical challenges due to the presence of Japanese knotweed – a highly invasive plant that required every load of soil to be carefully hand-screened and cleared before being removed.
As construction progressed, the arrival of COVID-19 brought a new set of disruptions: social distancing rules, remote working arrangements, and supply chain interruptions forced a constant adjustment to coordination and scheduling. At the same time, Hackney was undertaking negotiations with Hatzola, the local Jewish ambulance service, to include a dedicated ambulance bay within the development.
Though the lease fell through due to timing and negotiation issues, it didn’t diminish the broader gesture of inclusion. As Angela noted, making the offer mattered more than the outcome. Today, the former ambulance bay is used for back-office facilities and will soon be re-let for a community-serving business, keeping the space productive and reflecting the Council’s commitment to listening and adapting to community needs.
The public realm as a stage for belonging
Tower Court is a place shaped by its community, not just its buildings. Instead of straight lines, the apartment blocks curve and pull back to respond to a 200-year-old tree, daylight, and views, creating an ongoing dialogue between architecture and nature. Communal spaces lie at the heart of the estate, weaving sociability into everyday life. The playable bridges linking apartment blocks are all unique, giving all children reasons to explore and connect across the site.
As James Hills of Adam Khan Architects noted, texture and details reach beyond the ground floor. Bands of Furness brick step in and out, wrapping lobbies and entrances to add a sense of individuality and warmth. The public realm isn’t limited to streets and gardens — it extends upward, inviting interaction and belonging at every level.
Tower Court shows that placemaking is about listening, adapting, and creating spaces where individuals and communities are truly seen and valued. When the heart of design is people, every corner, tree, and pathway become part of an ongoing conversation—one that asks us to reconsider what it really means to belong.
“It’s about learning that there’s no problem that can’t be talked about,” added Tom Stebbing. “It’s not rocket science.”
Find out more about our Happy Homes project.
The Happy London project is supported by Countryside Partnerships, Potter Raper and Queen Mary University London
