146-room co-housing development planned for commercial laundry site

Outline plans have been revealed to demolish buildings and construct a 146 room co-housing development for students and young professionals in Leeds.

The scheme, which would also include a restaurant, a bar, workspace and parking for 12 cars and 140 bicycles, is intended for the former Cottage Laundry site in Edinburgh Grove, Armley.

Applicant Armley Limited says the properties occupying this land are disused and in a poor state of repair.

It wants to knock them down and replace them with a brand new building which would provide co-housing accommodation. This would feature individual or shared studio flats clustered around shared communal spaces, along with a residents’ lounge.

A design statement accompanying the planning application, drawn up by ROH Architects, explains: “Co-housing is a relatively new concept in the UK, but there are already several successful schemes up and running.

“They are particularly suited to large, metropolitan areas where there be high mobility, especially among the young professionals, and where housing costs are generally higher. It is particularly suited to a mobile population.

“Serving the development would create local jobs for the running and the management of the building.

“The quality of the new building will be of a much greater architectural standard than the existing collection of structures, creating an improved quality of environment locally in terms of outlook and daylight.

“The overall appearance is intended to be of a building very much in scale with the surrounding streets, and of a reduced scale from the existing industrial site.”