Single Aspect Blog

1.1 Defining Places

A good start. A lot of common sense which made me think of Islington and Belgravia when they talk about “a strong and consistent architectural character” and made me feel a bit sad having recently walked the Holly Street estate in Hackney and wondered why it wasn’t built in the same style as the surrounding streets.

I like the Alice Coleman references such as “There should also always be clear distinctions between spaces that are for public and private use.” She made a big play of that in “Utopia on trial” and walking around Holly Street recently made me conscious that the architects there had made a determined effort to clearly demarcate front gardens and the area in front of ground floor flats, with iron railings to provide defensible space.

Again, with “placing entrances and windows on street frontages and around public spaces brings activity which in turn increases neighbourliness and security by passive surveillance.”  All good stuff straight from the Oscar Newman and Alice Coleman school of thought.

1.2 Outdoor Spaces

“Spaces that receive some direct sunlight are used more frequently and enjoyed for longer periods throughout the year”.  I like that and I think that a communal outdoor space would have to be very small, or greatly overshadowed not to receive direct sunlight, but I can see the principle of not placing tall buildings next to a communal outdoor space and think that’s a good thing.

They talk about car parking, which incidentally Sir Parker Morris struggled with, because it takes away valuable ground level space from gardens and play space for children.  LHDG say that “possibilities for on-site parking including undercroft and on-street parking should always be explored in preference to providing extensive open areas of surface car parking.”

Well yes of course, but people like to be able to see their car(s) from their windows, and as Alice Coleman and others have pointed out, underground garages lead to trouble unless they are gated and in a so called “affordable” development or replacement for council homes I simply don’t see that happening.  24hr security and gated car parks would raise service charges which are already a contentious issue among many “social rented” tenants.

Lastly as regards the table of spaces allocated per child for play, I cannot comment because I’m not a parent and have no idea on what grounds these figures have been chosen but I agree with “overlooked and secure”.

Summary

A quick look at the report itself will show you that all these recommendations are given Priority 1.  Now this is important because from page 9 we learn that “Priority 1 standards must be met in full.”