Designs on London – LFA – 29/6/2010
June 30th, 2010
Who’s driving what gets built and how can we do it better?
As part of the London Festival of Architecture an event took place in the Gallery at 77 Cowcross Street on Tuesday evening 29th June. Those speaking were the following:-
David Birkbeck, Chief Executive of Design for Homes, chaired the event and speakers included: Alex Ely, partner at MAE Architects, Sadie Morgan, partner at DRMM, Dick Mortimer, Development Director at Family Mosaic, Chris “Good Evening Glastonbury!” Brown, Chief Executive at Igloo, and finally, David Lunts, London Regional Director at the HCA.
The evening started at 1800 with an introduction from David Birkbeck followed by a short talk from each of those present beginning with:-
Sadie Morgan who talked about the difference between ideals and practice in designing flats, and showed a succession of slides outlining the path from proposal to completion and the changes therein caused by the constraints of different building regulations.
Alex Ely showed slides of projects in Germany and the Netherlands where good design had been achieved with a minimal design brief and one I think in England where the brief had been 143 pages and turned out to be blue and ugly.
Private Eye: Thatch Roofs
June 29th, 2010
Some time ago, earlier this year while I was doing some internet research about Hammersmith and Fulham I came across a table showing the salaries of the Chief Executives of Housing Associations. They are substantial. A few weeks ago on one of my many architectural trips into the capital I met a couple on the train, quite posh, retired who were about to dispose of a copy of that weeks Private Eye. Understanding it was headed for the bin I said “would you mind if I read it instead please?” to which they agreed and on p.3 I found this article.
Ministers were quick to reveal that 50 housing associations pay their chief executives more than the prime minister. But they may be a bit slower to do anything about it.
Associations are classed as private sector organisations despite receiving billions of pounds in development grants and housing benefit payments from the taxpayer. That enables them to raise billions more in private finance to build homes without any impact on public borrowing, and to style themselves as independent businesses that have to pay the going rate to attract and retain the best people.
London’s Byker Walls – Lefevre Walk E3 & Southwyck House SW9
June 26th, 2010
UPDATE: 20/3/18 I’d feel happier about this block in rapidly gentrifying Brixton if https://www.frendcastle.co.uk/developments/ weren’t taking an interest in it. Are others too?
UPDATE: 7/2/14 I heard yesterday that Southwyck House has been refused listing by EH and so we can no doubt look forward to London’s only barrier block being “redeveloped” at some stage for the benefit of an increasingly gentrified Brixton.
While going to see Peter Barber’s Donnybrook this afternoon (26/6/2010) I came across the longest line of single aspect houses I’ve ever seen, 270m according to Google Earth, and less than 200m from Donnybrook.
Taken from the footbridge, click photo for larger image
It’s like a smaller version of the Byker Wall in Newcastle, built to shield the residents from a dual carriageway, the motorway was never built. Not having studied it myself I am informed by a commentator today (3/10/2010) that the flats have windows overlooking the road (see Comments below). A quick Google of the road adjacent shows it to be Lefevre Walk.
Woods House – A2Dominion – Grosvenor Waterside
June 24th, 2010
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
Right to buy II
June 14th, 2010
From time to time while researching housing matters I come across such erudite and informed articles that I treasure them and what follows is one such which encapsulates the both the recent history of and present crisis in housing. It covers so much of what I think is presently wrong with the housing situation in this country.
oldonmk2
13 Jun 2010, 12:06PM
Subsidized housing is not simply council housing, or housing assn properties. Many houses built in the private sector from 1945- 79 benefitted from tax relief on mortgage interest payments!
In what is now Milton Keynes an employed person with a £6000 mortgage in 1973 had the same tax relief as a person with six children of school age. And the bigger the mortgage, the greater the tax relief.
The problem is that around 50% of the population had wages which would not allow them to buy a house back then, and that figure has probably risen to 70-75% today. Then the building of council houses – flats made it possible for people to have a reasonable life. The alternative was private sector housing in bedsits which typically took more than 35% of the average wage in rent for one dilipidated room without running water, and any security of tenure.
There was also those houses lost by bombing, and thousands of men returning from the forces, or as my parents did, having to move from a requisitioned house we had been parked in because my father was required for war work in a factory design office out in the sticks. These displaced persons did not have the cash to buy property, [forces pay for the rank & file rarely exceeded £3 per week! They were the majority! Not much to risk your life for.
Council housing before “right to buy” was largely self financing, the asset lasting near a century or more, would ultimately pay for itself. Right to buy wrecked this system. Which up to the time of Thatcher was largely accepted by both parties. Indeed some of the most pleasant council estates were erected by Tory councils in semi rural areas. Thatcher set out to destroy local govt, by “reform” of the rating system, and planning control. She largely succeeded. Now we have the consequences of Her and her acolytes Major, Blair and Brown.
https://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jun/13/cuts-threaten-affordable-new-homes
Lastly if you’re wondering where Right to buy I is it’s linked here
UPDATE: This from the Green Benches
https://eoin-clarke.blogspot.com/2011/10/tories-sold-320bn-of-council-homes.html
Housing density
June 10th, 2010
“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.”
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:-
Alfa Laval – crap flats and back-to-backs
June 9th, 2010
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.
Three double bedrooms, two bath, no kitchen
June 8th, 2010
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.
Housing standards
June 5th, 2010
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.
. . . 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
Cannon Place – Cannon Street London
June 5th, 2010
This has been a difficult week trying to identify an appropriate item about housing to highlight. Watching the emails come in with different items of building news. There was the intriguing and fascinating Cannon Street cantilever . . .
Click the picture above to see the full design
Finding somewhere to lay the foundations for an office block above London’s Cannon Street station proved so difficult, the engineers had to call on the structural principles of the Forth Bridge to get the job done
https://www.building.co.uk/technical/support-act-cannon-place/5000302.article
. . . which I went to see on Thursday 3rd June. It’s a fascinating sight, photo in due course I hope. However it’s not housing, that’s why this article is filed under Thoughts.