Hillcrest was the site of a former Farmhouse and yard in Aston on Trent, Derbyshire. The site had a scheme in place with the benefit of planning permission when the developer approached Urban Designs. Although the previous proposals achieved a large floor area, the design of the buildings was not to the developer’s high standards and the layout of plots was contrived and impractical. Our approach was to design eight individual dwellings based upon four basic layouts. The designs were of traditional form to reflect local architecture. The layout of the plots was constrained by the development boundary resulting in large gardens to certain plots with smaller frontages. A pinch point was formed at the site entrance opening up into a courtyard within the site. This made for a scheme with real visual impact from the contrast of the narrowing access road opening up into a spacious square. The use of high quality materials and a high level of attention to detail resulted in a quality scheme.