Single Aspect Blog

UPDATE: 14/9/12 – Firefighters rescue woman from Pimlico flat fire

This dreadful building by MAKE stands between the private residential waterside block (Bramah) and the railway lines into Victoria.  It has mean narrow pinched windows and consists almost entirely of overheated single aspect flats without balconies  (the corner flats have adjacent windows facing at 90°).

Click photo for larger image

Woods House shows its western face, limited fenestration is the technical term

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“This don’t care attitude combined with a lack of regulation, the need for high density living and “if we build it they’ll buy it” mentality is what has resulted in modern slums that are single aspect flats and multi-storey terraced houses with one external door – Ed.”

This is a subject that needs great care and attention to detail because of the risk of building modern slums. Single aspect dwellings, poor light and over-shadowing are all interconnected and more likely as housing is built more densely if not upward, but Mae are always worth listening to and a recent article in BDOnline quotes Alex Ely below:-

Alex Ely, a partner at Mae Architects who has been working on the mayor’s housing design guide, called the relaxation of minimum density rules a “backward step”.

A critical mass was needed to support public transport and other amenities, he said. And London low-density schemes would not be viable because land prices were so high.

“If we are going to build sustainably we need to use land effectively,” he said. “We whine about our post offices closing and bemoan the fact that our kids can’t afford to buy a home, yet as a nation we are actively opposed to development.”

https://www.bdonline.co.uk/5000773.article

The Post Offices were closed in order to reduce financial losses to the Royal Mail it is true but this was the result of a commercial  decision to move away from cross subsidy and the idea of the Post Office as a public service, and entirely to a profit driven model.  However I can understand the point he’s making that it requires a certain density of housing to support local services.

This article is continued on the Density page

If you arrived here in the hope of reading about terraced housing then please read this:-

Let’s hear it for the terrace

UPDATE: This project started on site in March 2013

Below is the rendering of the intended scheme from the Building Magazine article.

Hounslow council has approved a £100m scheme to regenerate a derelict 1.85ha site in Brentford, which has lain empty for 20 years.

19th May 2011 – Carlton have submitted revised plans for a 200 new homes development on the Alfa Laval site in Brentford.

Designs by Assael Architecture for a mixed-use scheme on the former Alfa Laval site in the heart of Brentford have received planning permission.

https://www.building.co.uk/5000745.article

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Alfa Laval Brentford

Building F Plans (Private)

Click plan above for full drawing

I have reservations about this design. The front door leads sideways into the hall requiring a 90 deg turn for all furniture movements in and out with freedom of movement being further compromised by the proximity of the adjacent wall.  Given the direction in which the front door opens it will be additionally difficult to move furniture in and out.  The ensuite if required at all which is questionable, should be a shower given that the property already has one bath.  The other bathroom door opens outwards thus causing unnecessary conflict with passage to the adjacent bedroom.

The double bedroom closest to the living room might be better as a single in order to make room for a proper kitchen in its own four walls, and a living room alone looking onto the terrace.

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This week brings some good news winging its way into my inbox from CABE about raising housing standards . . .

2010 will be a pivotal year for housing standards. We know from our work around the country that many local authorities are looking at setting their own standards for their local area.

https://www.cabe.org.uk/housing/standards

. . . as a direct result surely of their very public spat with the HCA over funding Kickstart schemes known to have scored poorly on the Building for Life criteria.

Since the deletion of the ‘Parker Morris Standard’ as a benchmark for the public funding of council housing in 1980, there has been growing concern over the decline of space in new homes and the potential problems this creates for households. Put another way, there has been concern for the ‘loss of benefits’ that reduced space in homes brings.

https://www.cabe.org.uk/files/space-standards-the-benefits.pdf

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Do I need to spell out what’s wrong with this flat?

Click image above for full floorplan

Doors

The front door leads into the side of a corridor such that moving furniture in and out is likely to be problematic owing to the need to immediately turn a right angle not to mention the adjacent wall which will make turning long furniture difficult. The doors on the two ensuite bathrooms and the additional toilet, all open outwards because the rooms are so small. The toilet door will foul the corridor when open.  None of the doors open so as to preserve the privacy of a room.

Dormer vs. Velux

Bedroom 2 doesn’t have proper windows, it’s got Velux instead so there’s no direct view out.  This might be acceptable in a house as a loft conversion where there are existing bedrooms with conventional windows but not (to me) in one of the two main bedrooms.  These do not enable a direct view out of the property but only a distant view and that of the sky. They will be noisy when it rains or hails and allow direct sunlight to heat the room in a way that a dormer would not.

Storage space

Storage space is non-existent.  The sloping walls make it difficult to place wardrobes and bookcases against external walls thus further reducing storage.

Kitchen – there isn’t one

There is no separate kitchen.  What serves as a kitchen is a few units in the corner of the living room with no view out for the person cooking or preparing food. Why is the kitchen not a separate room and why given that it’s been stuck in the living room like an unwanted appendage, does it have no view?

Bathrooms and toilets

Why do a couple and their one or two children need three toilets? Why is there a bathroom for every occupant, and then some.

Is this good design?  I don’t think so.  Where are they?  “Southminster”, Cook’s Shipyard, Wivenhoe, Essex.

How do crap flats win awards?  I suspect the award is for the block layout rather than the detailed flat design.

“the best researched” designs one planning commitee member had ever seen

https://www.hdawards.org/archive/2006/project/cookship.html

This lot can’t even bring themselves to call a toilet a toilet.  Apparently it’s a “guest cloakroom”.

“Just one of the new homes available now is the superb two-bedroom ‘Southminster’ apartment, priced from just £249,995, which is characterised by a magnificent open-plan kitchen/lounge/dining room leading to a private balcony with stunning views over the water.

Both bedrooms boast en-suite shower rooms and the property also benefits from a handy guest cloakroom off the entrance hallway.”

 

UPDATE: 22/9/11 Now this from the RIBA and their excellent Case for Space publication

8 sqm is the single bedroom you’re missing. It’s the space for a new arrival to the family, the space that means the kids have a room of their own or a spare room for a guest to stay over. It’s the space that could take the kitchen out of the lounge and the sounds and smells that go with it.

CaseforSpace.pdf

Building Design magazine ran a story recently about a new development in Roehampton (South West London) by Assael architects for some flats.  I phoned Wandsworth council to try and find out more and this is what I discovered.

https://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/gis/search/Search.aspx

Type in the planning reference 2009/4199

Land at Highcliffe Drive, Clarence Lane SW15

No single aspect flats that I could see from a cursory glance but no kitchens either.  The kitchen seems to be a vanishing room in modern developments and in this development appears only as a corner unit in the living rooms. No view from the sink, no isolation of smells from the living room.  Too bad if you’re boiling cabbage or cooking curry.

I’d like to say that I don’t understand why modern developments have done away with separate kitchens but the sadness is that I do understand and I don’t like it.  If you look back at the history of housing from year dot through to the present there was no doubt a time when families shared a kitchen as in tenement blocks, or all lived in one room where the range provided the warmth, and variations on that theme.

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During the 1940s my late Father studied architecture at the South East Essex Technical College in Longbridge Road Barking, later to become the Barking Campus of the University of East London and then sold in 2006 for housing.  “Academy Central” developed by Taylor Wimpey has preserved the main building and put housing on the surrounding land as advertised at their website here

Living space

I had a quick look at the plan for a two bedroom flat and noted immediately that it is corridor access single aspect.  The kitchen, bathroom and ensuite shower are all internal having no natural light.  The provision of two bathrooms and toilets in a space intended at most for two adults and two children, and more likely a couple with a guest room, seems excessive and takes useful space away from the master bedroom.  There is a stub wall only between the kitchen and living space and no dining room.

Kitchen

Cooking smells will accumulate in the living room, unless some form of extraction is present (not immediately obvious from the plan).  Through ventilation is not possible without opening the door to the corridor which will compromise security and provide an opportunity for a young child to run out into semi-public space.

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Who to vote for on space standards? You might have thought that following the promises made (and broken) by Boris Johnson in raising the profile of Sir Parker Morris that space standards would by now have found their way into the manifesto commitments of all three major parties but you would be wrong.  What each of the three candidates below are essentially saying is that if you are free to move around in the market place you can avoid the smaller housing and move to larger but what they are not saying is that so much of what is being built today is inadequate. That housing standards across the country are failing in terms of space so the housing stock is itself being diminished.

On 19 January 100 property professionals had the opportunity to question housing spokespeople from the three main parties at the RICS, Building and Property Week pre-election hustings.

Rt Hon Nick Raynsford (Labour)

Introducing space standards for new private housing is not appropriate, since there is more choice and mobility for tenants and owners than in the social rented sector.

Grant Shapps (Conservative)

Space standards in the private rented sector and density targets
Temporarily relaxing space standards could allow many empty homes to be brought into use by the social housing sector. Density targets would be removed by a Conservative administration.

Sarah Teather (Liberal Democrats)

Space standards
Agreed with Nick Raynsford regarding the differences in mobility and choice between the social and private housing and therefore did not support blanket space standards for new private homes.

https://www.rics.org/site/scripts/news_article.aspx?newsID=1194

Following my study of the A2Dominion developments around the South East I did a study on Vue2 at Bletchley (near the station) and the results may be seen below:-

• From August 17th 2008 until April 20th 2009 the sun never rose within sight of Vue2 NNW facing flats
• On midsummers day the NNW facing flats would get just 2 hours of sunlight from the East at a time when most people would be asleep, and a maximum of five hours from the west
• On 11-11-2009 the sun sets along the alignment of Vue2 and for two months it is not to be seen from the west, until 11-1-2010
• The longest the sun is visible from the west will be at the summer solstice from 16:23 to sunset at 21:29, just over five hours

for photos and more details click here

Bear in mind that with only marginal differences the results will be the same for any given year. The fact that I had to choose specific dates and times in order to plot the sun does not alter the fact that this situation is repeated annually.

We’re not the only ones worried about sunlight issues, while researching single aspect dwellings on the web I found the following document about Australian regulations relating to sunlight ->Sunlight_Aus.pdf<-

NOTE: Please be aware that in the Southern hemisphere the sun shines from the North not the South, and so in Australia a North facing single aspect flat will be sunny but a South facing one will be dark.  The reverse of the situation here in the UK.