A 43-acre canal side residential development has begun at Birmingham’s Port Loop with a modular housing first phase.

The urban island, encircled by the Birmingham Canal Old Line and the Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line, is one of the U.K.’s largest brownfield regeneration schemes. Recently the site has been all but derelict.

The area will be transformed into a new family-focused waterside neighbourhood by Urban Splash and property and leisure management, development and regeneration business Places for People. They will work in tandem with landowners Canal & River Trust and Birmingham City Council to bring about 1,150 new homes, as well as commercial property and community facilities.

The start of work on-site for the first 77 homes comes ahead of plans to deliver a large-scale, multi-phased development. Forty of the properties will be created off-site by House, the Urban Splash modular brand. The first phase has been designed by shedkm, Grant Associates and Birmingham-based Glenn Howells Architects.

“The extensive and multifaceted remediation of the site has been underway since the start of the year, including the complex rebuilding of the canal walls, clearing and recycling around 60,000 cubic metres of soil and materials and re-engineering the site levels to get it ready for bringing this new neighbourhood to life,” Project Director Adam Willetts said.

Planning permission has been granted for a first phase with a mix of 207 family homes and apartments, together with a new park. Work is also underway on plans for the wider community facilities.

The original Icknield Port Loop was born out of the Industrial Revolution, with the first winding canal being constructed in the area between 1766 and 1769, before a straight canal by-pass, the Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line, created an urban island in 1827.