With the drive to deliver more homes across the country has come a loud call for those developments to be of a high standard of design in order to deliver high quality, liveable and sustainable environments for residents. Research has consistently shown that high quality design makes new residential developments more acceptable to local communities.
To measure this, the Place Alliance (UCL) and CPRE, with support from Home Builders Federation, Urban Design Group, Civic Voice, Academy of Urbanism, Design Council, UK Green Building Council, and Institute for Highways and Transportation have joined forces on the first ever national housing design audit. The work is also supported by professional input from JTP, Arup, Spawforths and URBED and a network of specially trained volunteers across the country.
Housing design audits represent systematic approaches to assess the design quality of the external residential environment. The new audit will assess at least 100 large-scale developments across England and will provide enough data for comparisons to be made between regions and different approaches to the delivery of new housing. Using broadly the same methodology as earlier housing design audits conducted between 2004 and 2007 (see Background below), the intention is to look back and see how the design of housing developments has changed over the last decade. It will also provide a baseline against which to measure progress on place-making in new housing development going forward.
The audit will be completed in the autumn and will feed into the work of the Government’s Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission.
Background
The design quality of the external residential environment will be measured against seventeen topics:
1. Community facilities –
Does the development provide (or is it close to) community facilities, such as
a school, parks, play areas, shops, pubs or cafés?
2. Housing types – Is there a mix of
housing types to meet varied local needs?
3. Public transport – Does the development
have easy access to public transport?
4. Environmental impact – Does the development
have a low environmental impact?
5. The locality – Is the design specific
to the scheme?
6. Existing and new landscape –
Does the scheme exploit existing landscape or topography and create a new
bio-diverse landscape?
7. Character of the development –
Does the scheme feel like a place with a distinctive character?
8. Street legibility – Do the buildings and
layout make it easy to find your way around?
9. Street definition – Are streets defined by
a well-structured building layout?
10. Highway design – Does the building
layout take priority over the road, so that highways do not dominate?
11. Car parking – Is the car parking well
integrated and situated, so it supports the street scene?
12. Pedestrian friendly – Are the streets
pedestrian and cycle friendly?
13. Connectivity within and with the surroundings developments –
Does the street layout connect up internally and integrate with existing
streets, paths and surrounding development?
14. Safety and security – Are open spaces, play
areas and streets overlooked and do they feel safe?
15. Public, open and play spaces –
Is public, open and play spaces well designed and does it have suitable
management arrangements in place?
16. Architectural quality – Do the buildings
exhibit architectural quality?
17. Storage and bins – Are storage spaces well
designed and do they integrate well within the development?