Tag: Design

Categories
Case Study

Housing Design Awards

The Housing Design Awards were first created to drive quality during the rebuild of post-war Britain. In 1947 Aneurin Bevan, Minister for Health with responsibility for housing, told Parliament that the Government would present annual awards for the design and layout of homes procured by the public sector. The initiative was part of the creation of the NHS, the aim being free health care and healthier homes (several common diseases of the period were associated with bad ventilation and damp).

Under the guidance of current chairman Gareth Capner and director David Birkbeck of Design for Homes, the Awards have increased their investment in explaining the details about winning and shortlisted schemes. Short films are made each year about Completed winners, interviewing development teams, planning authorities and residents. This is a perfect continuation of the Housing Design Awards’ original purpose, to explain what residents think about innovative design and whether it can be replicated.

To date there have been more than 1,000 winning schemes. The HDA archive of previous winners is the largest such resource in the world.

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Further information: hdawards.org

Categories
Guidance

Easi Guide to Passivhaus design

Levitt Bernstein, alongside sustainability engineers Etude, have campaigned tirelessly for faster change in the built environment to achieve zero carbon. But they have found that often the best way to effect change is to collaborate with others, lead by example and share learning along the way.

They believe that the first step to zero carbon is to create an ultra-efficient building design. Through their project work with Etude, they have discovered that the benefits of low energy design can be unlocked by viewing Passivhaus considerations as an opportunity, rather than a constraint.

This led them to develop the ‘Easi Guide to Passivhaus design’, which has been endorsed by the Passivhaus Trust.

The guide graphically sets out ten simple principles that form the foundations of good Passivhaus and zero carbon design. They encourage clients to use it to set their briefs and architects to use it when designing their buildings. The main body of the guide emphasises key considerations at RIBA Stage 2 to allow design teams to meet Passivhaus within the contextual needs of their site, while a checklist offers the next steps if full certification is to be pursued.

By providing open access, they hope that you enjoy our guide, make many zero carbon buildings and share your learning with others.

Author: Etude/Levitt Bernstein

Publication date: June 2020

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Categories
Report

Living with beauty; promoting health, well-being and sustainable growth

The Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission is an independent body set up to advise government on how to promote and increase the use of high-quality design for new build homes and neighbourhoods.

In its final report, ‘Living with beauty’, the Commission has set out its recommendations to government.

Author: Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission

Publication date: January 2020

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Categories
Guidance

National Design Guide

The national design guide sets out the characteristics of well-designed places and demonstrates what good design means in practice.

It forms part of the government’s collection of planning practice guidance and should be read alongside the separate planning practice guidance on design process and tools.

Author: Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government

Publication date: October 2019

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Categories
Report

Distinctively Local

This report focuses on new suburban and rural housing, including urban extensions, suburban infill and completely new settlements. It aims to inform and inspire those who may be planning, designing, delivering or hoping to inhabit new developments, including the latest generation of garden towns and villages. It includes guidance and case studies showing how to create genuinely distinctive and popular places. In doing so we hope it will help foster a positive perception of new development that can in turn help smooth the path for boosting housing supply.

This report is the product of collaboration between four architectural practices, specialising in the design and delivery of residential and mixed-use neighbourhoods:

Author: HTA Design, Pollard Thomas Edwards (PTE), PRP, Proctor & Matthews Architects.

Publication date: May 2019

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Further information: http://distinctively-local.co.uk/

Categories
Book

The Housing Design Handbook: A guide to good practice

Everyone deserves a decent and affordable home, a truth (almost) universally acknowledged. But housing in the UK has been in a state of crisis for decades, with too few homes built, too often of dubious quality, and costing too much to buy, rent or inhabit. It doesn’t have to be like this. Bringing together a wealth of experience from a wide range of housing experts, this completely revised edition of The Housing Design Handbook provides an authoritative, comprehensive and systematic guide to best practice in what is perhaps the most contentious and complex field of architectural design.

This book sets out design principles for all the essential components of successful housing design – including placemaking, typologies and density, internal and external space, privacy, security, tenure, and community engagement – illustrated with case studies of schemes by architecture practices working across the UK and continental Europe.

Written by David Levitt and Jo McCafferty – two recognised authorities in the field – and with contributions from more than twenty other leading practitioners, The Housing Design Handbook is an essential reference for professionals and students in architecture and design as well as for government bodies, housing associations and other agencies involved in housing.

Read a teaser for the book here.

Author: David Levitt, Jo McCafferty

Publication date: October 2018

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Categories
Paper

Creative Housing Design: Promoting sustainable living in cohousing community in the UK

Semi-structured interviews were carried out i) to understand residents’ thinking and behaviour change through living in the cohousing community, and ii) to establish the environmental and social sustainability in a cohousing setting.

The study found that the development procedure of cohousing highly differs from the mainstream housing design. The quality of the design can potentially influence the residents’ daily life.

The findings will benefit a range of groups. It will be an important reference for cohousing design standards. Also, it could potentially become the legitimate toolkit for cohousing groups.

Author: Jingjing Wang, Yiru Pan, Karim Hadjri, University of Sheffield

Publication date: June 2018

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Categories
Guidance

Manchester Residential Quality Guidance

An outline to the considerations, qualities, and opportunities that will help to deliver high quality residential development as part of successful and sustainable neighbourhoods across Manchester.

Author: Manchester City Council (MCC) by:

  • Deloitte Real Estate: John Cooper/Ed Britton
  • Planit-IE: Peter Swift/Robert Thompson/Alexandra Chairetaki/Chris Hall/Abi Allen
  • CallisonRTKL: John Badman/Michael Dillon

Publication date: March 2017

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Categories
Guidance

The Cambridge Sustainable Housing Design Guide

Cambridge City Council plan to build at least 500 new environmentally friendly council homes by 2022. The Good Homes Alliance contributed towards the development of ‘The Cambridge Sustainable Housing Design Guide’ for the Greater Cambridge Housing Development Agency (HDA) which sets out the key design principles that will be followed when developing the new homes.

Author: Greater Cambridge Housing Development Agency (HDA).

Publication date: February 2017

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Categories
Book Report

One Hundred Years of Housing Space Standards: What now?

Part history, part insight and part opinion, this is perhaps the most detailed and contextual analysis of housing space standards that exists, and certainly the most current. Written by Julia Park, Head of Housing Research at Levitt Bernstein, the account begins with a summary of the evolution, or perhaps more accurately, the comings and goings, of the various space standards that have been applied to new housing in England.

Reflecting on what history tells us, the book examines the role of space standards in the context of the current housing crisis and explores how themes such as under-occupancy, overcrowding, density, mix, land value, viability and politics are all part of the story. The final section offers informed thoughts about the way forward. It concludes that the benefits of regulation are likely to significantly outweigh any disadvantages and could be a catalyst for far-reaching, positive changes in the way we live – potentially resulting in more housing, not less.

Author: Julia Park, Levitt Bernstein

Publication date: January 2017

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Further information: housingspacestandards.co.uk