A cluster of workshops buried in Leigh-on-Sea’s polite suburbia couldn’t be seen, but they could be heard. Six light industrial businesses were sandwiched between houses, a parade of shops, and a cemetery. The workshops which occupied the dilapidated sheds provided a valued service to vintage car enthusiasts, but their location was inappropriate and incongruous. As a collector and restorer of all manner of vintage paraphernalia, project manager and property developer Ken Baines immediately saw the site’s potential. Environmentally and commercially, changing the site’s use from industrial to residential made sense, but it wasn’t going to be easy. The steel-framed metal-clad sheds had deep plans and single aspects - not ideal dwellings. There was no possibility of creating any new windows facing south, directly into the neighbours’ gardens, or west, facing the burial ground. The open space on the site was required for vehicular access and parking. The wider context was green and salubrious, but the site itself was hard surfaced and barren. Baines gave iArch a clean sheet of paper. The obvious option was to redevelop the site, creating a mews or terrace of conventional houses. Other variants required partial demolition to carve out courtyards within the existing building footprints. The alternatives were constrained by issues of overlooking, overshadowing, providing adequate amenity space and external outlook. Access for refuse collection and emergency vehicles, and means of escape, also posed problems. The existing buildings had not been well maintained.