Sheffield: Gleadless Valley Panorama
July 25th, 2011
This will become an article at some point but just for now enjoy the pictures. Two large panoramas of Gleadless Valley and its housing. The same series of photographs but saved at different resolutions.
Panoramic 11764 x 1330 pixels 2.21Mb in size >click here<
Panoramic 23528 x 2660 pixels 7.75Mb in size >click here<
My Gleadless Valley photos on Flickr:- Gleadless Valley photos here
https://www.welivehere.co.uk/valley_brit_print.html
Taylor Wimpey example of kitchen design
July 25th, 2011
I had to laugh. That’s what somebody typed into Google (in the title) before reaching my page on crap flats. I had no idea they were designed I thought they were the space left over when the requisite number of en-suite bedrooms and toilets had been put in along with the composite living/dining area. I cannot seriously imagine design ever coming into it.
Look through this blog and all the TW kitchens you’ll see here will be units stuck along a wall or around a corner or as an afterthought (mostly) without windows to look out of.
Thank you 109.149.4.xx for making my day.
Taylor Wimpey aren’t the only ones. Read my post on Kidbrooke Village – Phase One or Pepys Estate and what you find is that Berkeley Homes also regard it as acceptable not to include a separate kitchen in either their new developments or their redevelopments. They are not even pretending to approach open plan, they are just dumping a line of units along the wall in a room as an apology for a kitchen.
Park Hill – Owen Hatherley writing in Red Pepper
July 17th, 2011
Having just got back from Sheffield, this is extremely timely, if you haven’t read it the link is below, and if you have read it here’s a reminder.
Streets in the sky
Park Hill, in Sheffield, was the first attempt to solve this problem. Like any other post-war redevelopment scheme, it was the product of emergency – the need to rebuild a teeming, crumbling slum of back-to-backs crowded above Sheffield’s Midland station.
On passing through Glasgow
June 17th, 2011
Travel has long been a pleasure of mine and it had been many years (nearly 19 years in this case) since work had called me North but the opportunity to catch up after almost two decades of change was irresistible. So much is new, the Foster Armadillo concert hall, BBC Scotland, the new Zaha Hadid Riverside Museum, the Science Museum and several bridges. But better still so much is still there from last time. The Charles Rennie Mackintosh buildings, the wealth of good architecture and the friendly people.
Glasgow is a city that grows on me each time I go. Here are a very few shots of places I passed by, some of which I had time to visit and others not, but there’s always next time for it’s a city that draws you back.
On arriving at Central Station . . . let’s park our bags and . . .
Common sense on Council Housing – BD
June 17th, 2011
What a breath of fresh air has blown through the dusty corridors of Single Aspect House today with the arrival of this week’s BD Online and a letter addressing all the problems of sink estates and other denigrated social housing. I have no idea whether the author is a housing professional or simply a former council tenant but Steven Bee runs Steven Bee Urban Counsel His letter speaks volumes about the approach required to return to the heady days of the 1970s when so many lived in council housing without the scale of the problems apparent today.
Alfa Laval – new plans submitted
May 30th, 2011
UPDATE: This project started on site in March 2013
Carlton have submitted revised plans for a 200 new homes development on the Alfa Laval site in Brentford.
Former Alfa Laval Site Great West Road Brentford LONDON TW8 9BU
Date Recd 19-Apr-2011 Decision In Progress
North facing flats refused planning
May 13th, 2011
UPDATE: See also 100_Whitechapel_Road_final_decision.pdf heard through @euanmills in the pdfs folder
While trawling the web today for North facing single aspect flats I was delighted to find that at least one planning application has been refused in the recent past for containing North facing flats.
The image above taken from the planning document shows the paragraph in question and the rest of the document is here (source) or click the image above.
What is a single aspect flat?
May 9th, 2011
A single aspect flat is a dwelling that has windows only on one side, that faces one way, that forces its inhabitants to live with the consequences of its orientation for ever and a day without having the choice of moving to a room that benefits from more or less sunlight, depending on their wants and needs, or quite simply a different view.
A back to back house has the entrance door on the same side as the windows, whereas single aspect flats tend to have the entrance door on a corridor running the length of a rectangular block, with the only windows opposite the door, leading to internal kitchens and bathrooms and a lack of ventilation, with the consequent problems of temperature control, especially overheating.
What is a dual aspect flat?
May 9th, 2011
A dual aspect flat is an apartment that has windows on two or more sides. Most commonly these days they make an appearance as the corner flats in a block of single aspect flats, and have a view in two direction at 90° to each other. The flat may be ventilated by opening the furthest windows on each side but is in my view inferior to a flat having windows on opposite sides of the dwelling allowing full ventilation of the space when needed and a view in two opposite directions, allowing full use of the sunlight throughout the day.
For example in a block of flats orientated North or South with the windows facing East or West, containing only dual aspect flats one has the choice of morning sun in the bedrooms and setting in the living room or vice versa. With a corner dual aspect flat one is more limited and during a hot summer can less easily move to a cooler room.
From the Interim London Housing Design Guide:-
5.2 Dual aspect
Providing a home with two aspects can have many benefits: better daylight, cross ventilation, a choice of views, access to a quiet side of the building, and greater flexibility in the use of rooms and the potential for future adaptability to re-arrange rooms within the home. Dual aspect design should be the default.
A dual aspect dwelling is defined as one with openable windows on two external walls, which may be opposite or adjacent around a corner. One aspect may be towards an external access deck, courtyard, or ventilated atrium.
Single aspect flats are difficult to naturally ventilate and more likely to overheat, an increasing concern for homes in London due to anticipated temperature increases from climate change coupled with the urban heat island effect where London is inherently warmer than its surrounding areas. Single aspect flats will only be permitted where the design is shown to allow adequate daylight and ventilation to all habitable rooms.
Further reading:-
Zeilenbau orientation and Heliotropic housing
Kate Davies and H&F
May 4th, 2011
Fun with Nick and Kate
Both the Independent on Sunday and the Daily Mail featured the erstwhile director of housing for Hammersmith, Nick Johnson, and his partner, Kate Davies, this week. Good investigative journalism but slightly missing the point, which is why are they paid so much out of public funds to promote private housing?
The same day I saw these stories I got notice of a planning application from Notting Hill Housing (prop. Kate Davies). It is to build 41 properties on the former VW garage site in King Street. Four of these will be five-bedroomed town houses in St Peter’s Square, each retailing for about £3million on the open market – which is what all 41 will be doing. Apparently, there is insufficient equity in the site for this housing association – whose only purpose for existing and paying its chief executive is to house people on low incomes – to build a single affordable home.
https://www.andyslaughter.co.uk/?p=4736 or if that fails then locally here -> Fun with Nick and Kate