Figures 2.6 and 2.7 Drawings reproduced from Sustainable Residential Quality – Exploring the Housing Potential of Large Sites (London Planning Advisory Committee, 2000) with permission from Greater London Authority. Figure 7.12 and 7.13 With permission from Urban Housing Service Amsterdam, Project Management Bureau (PMB), Spatial Planning Department (dRO) and the City of Amsterdam Land Company, Amsterdam, 1999.
F OREWORD
Private finance initiatives could also be extended to meet more local requirements if monitored and followed by housing guidelines structured by local authorities. Improving the housing stock is, of course, a key factor in achieving the regeneration of urban areas.
P REFACE
In providing the many new homes we will need in the relatively near future, we must draw on the experience of the past. While design historians have lavished attention on the mansions and palaces of the wealthy, they have paid little attention to the everyday architecture that surrounded them—the mass of domestic buildings that were home to everyone else and that together formed a dwelling.
I NTRODUCTION
Even in more recent times, the architect-designed house has attracted a lot of attention. Externally, the house must address all directions, making the best use of relationships between inside and outside and at the same time creating a visual impact that reflects the prestige of its owner and the aspirations of its designer.
W HAT I S U RBAN H OUSING ?
Finally, the public realm is considered – the way buildings incorporate space, the way it is used, and the importance of security and good urban governance. Each of these issues is illustrated in one or more of the case study schemes.
P ART O NE
I SSUES IN U RBAN H OUSING
C ONTEXT
T HE E NVIRONMENTAL
I MPERATIVE
One of the most difficult areas of the new policy is creating mixed communities. This showed that 97 percent of the required new homes could be realized by building on 'brownfield' locations.17.
S TANDARDS
D IVIDING THE S PACE
This was followed by the Dudley Report of 1944 which resulted in new Housing Manuals of 1944 and 1949 to provide guidance on housing design.3 The report identified three types of houses which varied according to the use made of the kitchen. But it is also due to the continuing poor reputation of the multi-storey estates built in Britain's hinterland in the 1960s and 1970s. Most of the multi-storey estates in inner London are built at the standard zoned density of 136 people per acre (340 per hectare).
The density of this form of housing was generally between 10 and 20 homes per hectare, although tightly planned semi-detached houses could reach 30 per hectare – the threshold of the PPG3 standards. This would mean a mix of terraced houses and flats; the types of housing that characterize many inner-city areas. The provision of facilities was left to others: the municipality or the private market.
I NFRASTRUCTURE
In many of the low-density developments of the past, little attention was paid to such considerations.
T HE U RBAN N EIGHBOURHOOD
Currently, it does not characterize the most common movement – commuting – and if more sustainable lifestyles are to be developed, the distances between work and home must be reduced. It was a combination of the Prince of Wales' urban design ideas and the neighborhood concept. The government had considered and ultimately backed proposals for an exhibition to mark the turn of the century - the 'millennium dome' to be built on derelict land in Greenwich, East London.
Overall, the scheme is relatively low density and heavily car dependent – the antitheses of sustainable urban development. 5 Increased social inclusion. The development of mixed communities depends on accommodating a range of incomes, social status and household structure. The tests were used to evaluate five partially completed projects - the Greenwich, Allerton Bywater Millennium Villages, Poundbury, West Silvertown Urban Villages and Waltham Forest Housing Action Trust.
H OUSING F ORMS
T HE D ESIGN OF U RBAN S PACE
In part, it was due to the central decision to distribute multi-storey apartments to low-income families with children – the social group that was probably least suited to live in this form of housing. These lessons fall into two key areas – the planning of blocks of flats and the choice of access systems. Both of these approaches grew out of theories – the Garden City Ideal and the Modern Movement – which rejected the past and sought new urban forms to replace it.
Creating quality living environments depends on a better understanding of how these forms fit together – the structure of the urban living environment – and on a recognition of the importance of the traditional street. In residential areas, it is the sustainable forms of urban housing – the terraced houses and the perimeter flats – that most successfully enclose and define a pattern of public and private space. Share of spaces. The quality of a public space partly depends on its size and scale.
C ONSTRUCTION
T HE G REEN A GENDA
Research has shown that a family living in a very energy efficient house in a remote location will generally use more energy than a similar family living in a completely uninsulated traditional house in the city center simply because their dependence on the private car. 7High-density urban housing makes a substantial contribution to reducing carbon emissions simply by making transport more efficient. It has been estimated that a two-storey house in the middle of a terrace uses 30 percent less energy than the equivalent semi-detached house simply because of the smaller amount of external walls. Energy consumed in the use of housing can be reduced by making the best use of orientation and by improving insulation and ventilation.
Some of the energy can be absorbed in the building material, but the main gain is achieved by the glazed surfaces. There are many constraints and a set of priorities to address when designing urban housing, of which maximizing passive solar gain is just one. In order to save energy when using the apartment, it is important to ensure that as much of the heat produced in the home is preserved as possible.
CASEEXAMPLE5A H OUSING AT S TADLAU , V IENNA
In general, the proportion of external walls is low in urban housing, but particular attention should be paid to 'flank walls' – the end of a terrace or the side of an apartment building. 3 An exhaust at roof level. The action of the wind creates a negative pressure that supplements natural convection to draw air out. Wood and straw-based fuels can be burned to provide hot water and space heating.
It revolves around the concept of 'embody energy', the correct assessment of which has a significant impact on the choice and use of materials in residential construction. But sustainability also requires caring for health – the health of the broader natural environment and the health of the living environments we create for ourselves. In recent years, an international independent body – the Forestry Stewardship Council – has monitored hardwood forests and granted certification for sensitive management and good practices.
F LATS AT C HORLTON P ARK , M ANCHESTER
Trees planted along roads and walkways help protect pedestrians and cyclists from light rain or the heat of the sun. Off-site construction was actively promoted and a percentage of the budget for new social housing would be spent on houses that used some elements of prefab.29 Forms of prefab. As with pioneering low-energy developments, much of the innovation in off-site construction has focused on low-density individual homes.
This applies both to off-site construction and to many of the other new approaches offered by the green agenda. The health of the natural environment can be protected through the greater use of materials from sustainable and renewable sources. The health of the built environment can be improved through the greater use of plants that act as a 'green lung' and promote biodiversity.
R ECLAMATION
In city centers hundreds of Victorian commercial and industrial buildings were demolished and replaced by modern shops and office blocks.
R E - USING B UILT S PACE
In the context of the Kyoto Protocols, it is also important for the energy contained therein. This is an indication of the minimum embodied energy that can be saved through building reuse. The purpose of better insulation is to improve the thermal performance – the u-value – of the outer skin.
A regeneration scheme that started in the 1990s involved rebuilding some blocks but fourteen of the slab blocks. Many of the more difficult plate and deck access blocks can be rebuilt, making them suitable for family occupancy. The common areas in the block have been improved and provided with a secure entrance staffed by a.
CASEEXAMPLE6C B OX W ORKS , M ANCHESTER
The second way to attract more homes to shopping centers is to make better use of existing space instead of shops. A third way in which shopping centers can contribute to housing needs is by making better use of the airspace above them. This is one of the largest categories of new family formation and an area of strong growing demand.
By adapting and reusing existing buildings, part of the energy contained in them is retained. This amounts to at least 20 percent of the construction costs and in most cases considerably more. In general, people have no influence on the design and appearance of the buildings they use.
D ESIGN Q UALITY
The most important priority is that the design of any building must ensure that it is well built and functions well.
A Q UESTION OF T ASTE
They can be included in the task and sit alongside the other constraints that need to be addressed in the design process. These will limit changes that can damage and degrade the high quality of the buildings. In the Diagoon residence, the basic form and appearance of the buildings were determined when they were built.
Within this there is a high degree of scope for variation in the internal layout of the dwellings. The ultimate in customization is the ability to define the design of the entire home. Others have chosen to add balconies or oriel windows to the upper levels and there is considerable variation in the design of the upper level terraces.