Masterplanning is often described as arranging streets and plots. In reality, it’s a negotiation — between ideas and constraints, between public and private life, and between what a place is now and what it could become. Framfield Road, a fifty-home neighbourhood on the edge of an East Sussex village, follows these principles with a quiet restraint.
The project began with one developer, and is now being delivered by Elivia Homes. Along the way it’s been shaped through pre-application dialogue, community conversations, technical detailing and economies of construction. Each stage added new voices and new considerations, and the plan is stronger because of it.
We looked carefully at the logic of village life — where homes cluster around shared greens, where certain streets feel close-knit, and where others gradually open out toward the countryside. That understanding shaped the structure of the masterplan: a central green, a mix of terraced and detached homes, and a rhythm of public/private proximities designed to support everyday neighbourliness.
The most sensitive challenge sat at the site’s rural edge. Many of the homes back onto open countryside, which meant the boundary had to do two things at once:
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offer residents open views, and
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provide privacy and security.
James and the landscape architects (Studio 31) developed a boundary strategy that solves both. Ha-ha–style landforms keep the edge feeling open from the private side, while reading as taller and more secure from the public side. Defensive planting and high-quality hurdle fencing add another layer of comfort without interrupting the landscape. It’s a quiet intervention, but it makes the place work.
Throughout the design process, we kept returning to a simple idea: the spaces between the buildings matter just as much as the buildings themselves. Streets, planting, movement and micro-public realm moments were treated as the real drivers of character — especially in a scheme where the architecture had to work within budget, typology and local authority guidance.
As the development moves towards completion with Elivia Homes, Framfield Road shows what thoughtful masterplanning can do. It’s not about drawing houses. It’s about shaping how people will live together — and creating a place that feels rooted, generous and ready for the future.
