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.
HCA funding crisis
May 25th, 2010
This wonderful news which in any other circumstance would be bad news about housing, means that ill thought out and badly planned schemes like Wornington Green redevelopment, and many schemes of poor design funded hurredly under Kickstart, despite reservations of CABE, are likely to have their funding stopped or entirely withdrawn. Look at the row earlier this year:-
A row over the quality of publicly-funded homes rescued by the government’s £1bn Kickstart scheme has broken out between the two public bodies involved.
Documents obtained by Building under the Freedom of Information Act reveal a dispute between Richard Simmons, the chief executive of Cabe, and Sir Bob Kerslake, his opposite number at the Homes and the Communities Agency (HCA), over the scheme design assessments carried out by Cabe for the HCA.
The HCA was criticised in December after it emerged that more than half the homes in the Kickstart programme failed the government’s own design test. Of 136 developments, more than half achieved less than 10 out of 20 against the Building for Life design criteria.
HCA fate in doubt as £700m frozen
May 21st, 2010
This is the best news of the year. A lot of very questionable housing schemes have been given Kickstart funding regardless of their merits and the opinion of CABE. Now comes the news that that HCA that is funding so many of them is in financial difficulties.
Funding for Kickstart and Pathfinder in doubt as HCA enters talks with coalition over its future
All spending by the Housing and Communities Agency was put on hold this week as the quango entered “intense negotiations” with ministers and officials over budget cuts.
A source at the HCA said the body, which has about £700m of funding for construction waiting to be signed off, was examining “all uncommitted budgets” to try to identify savings.
It is thought likely the body will be expected to contribute to the £6bn of savings to be set out by chancellor George Osborne on Monday. It has a total budget of £6.1bn for 2010/11.
The future of the agency in its current form is also understood to be in doubt; housing minister Grant Shapps criticised it when he was in opposition.
In addition, the Treasury confirmed this week that the review of all spending decisions made since 1 January extended to quangos, meaning a raft of grant allocations made by the agency could be re-examined.
https://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3163831
Please note the last line quoted above. This means that even housing schemes granted permission and recently funded may be recalled.
Wornington Green it’s time to pray.
2 bed, 2 shower, 3 toilets, no bath, no kitchen – WHY?
May 14th, 2010
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
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.”
PPP abandoned – the last nail in the coffin for Brown
May 10th, 2010
When one looks back down the years at Ken’s Mayoralty, his struggles with the Labour Party at the time of trying to get elected as London Mayor, his fight with Gordon Brown over PPP and Ken’s attempts to keep tube funding public, his hiring of Bob Kiley (at some expense) from New York, to advise on how to go about running the tube efficiently, it is with a feeling of something bordering on despair to say “I told you so”.
From the London Evening Standard
Ken’s battle to save the tube from the hands of private contractors, and more importantly to ensure that all the funding went to the infrastructure and not divided into the pockets of directors and shareholders, rumbled on for years intertwined with his own struggles with the Labour party and his standing eventually as an independent for Mayor.
This from Londonist
Today he must feel vindicated but (saddened at the waste), that his prophetic point of view has been so thoroughly proved. What a waste of money in lawyers fees and contractors fees Londoners have paid for this mess.
Today the Guardian prints the news as follows:-
Transport for London (TfL) announced late on Friday evening the end of the controversial Public Private Partnership (PPP) on London Underground, saying it entered into an agreement to buy the shares of Bechtel and Amey (Ferrovial) from the Tube Lines consortium for £310 million.
Where has the kitchen gone?
May 5th, 2010
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.
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.