Building for Life National Conference

Sir Terry Farrell discusses the initiative's aims and design vision, barriers to progress and the divergence between housing supply and demand.

Introduction

According to a recent MORI poll commissioned by CABE only 37% of people thought that UK house-builders build well-designed homes.

That nearly two thirds of the population think that the provision of new housing in this country is not up to scratch is a statistic that should worry the house-builder. However, given that demand exceeds supply and house builders will have at least two buyers for every house, regardless of design quality, you could suggest that developers do not need to go to the extra effort of designing well.

But of course it is still a competitive market and given that 72% of people think that well designed homes will increase in value quicker than average it would seem unwise not to invest in good design. Good design sells and it doesn't cost any more to achieve.

That is the message of Building for Life, a three year initiative organised jointly by CABE, the House Builders Federation and the Civic Trust, to try and up the sights of the UK's large volume house builders and persuade them that good design is achievable, and brings social, economic and environmental benefits. The Initiative has three aims:

• To identify successful new housing, both at home and abroad, and explain to the house building industry and key decision makers why these homes and neighbourhoods work so well and how they can learn from them.
• To understand better the needs and aspirations of people buying homes so that the design of new housing is more attractive to them.
• To identify the barriers to designing quality new homes and will campaign to remove them.

One of the most productive ways of showing house builders just what can be achieved with a little thought and imagination is to celebrate the excellent schemes, which have been built recently. We do this through the detailed case studies accessible through the Building for Life web site. This currently contains 11 schemes with a further 12 to be added by October. There should be more and there seems a depressing shortage of high quality good design in the volume house-building sector. I hope, however, you will visit the web site to see what can be achieved when ambitious developers put their mind to it.

The Building for Life Initiative was launched at the same time as the introduction of PPG3 document Better Places to Live. This provides a valuable guide to creating better places to live and encourages a move away from anonymous estates of identikit housing, the guide should not be viewed as another hurdle to get over but as an opportunity to enhance the quality of the built environment.

I recently presented the inaugural Building for Life Award at the RIBA as part of the Housing Design Awards. There were three schemes of merit.

Firstly, Preston Point in Liverpool by Shed KM and the Maritime Housing Association. This scheme of 14 flats for sale and shared ownership is a model of the ingenious reuse of a difficult building, in this case a 19th century warehouse.

The second scheme for commendation is The Point at Wapping Wharf, Bristol by Feilden Clegg Bradley and Crosby Homes. This was a really bold and convincing response to a constrained urban site, which backs up to a railway line. The homes are generous in size and most have gardens or balconies overlooking the Floating Harbour.

The winning scheme was 9-25 Mile End Road London, by Proctor Matthews Architects and Copthorn Homes

This scheme, which comprises 6 houses, 49 flats and 10 maisonettes impressed the judges with its clever balance of private and public spaces, its stylish terracotta screen wall to the busy Mile End Road providing warmth as well as noise insulation, and the addition of retail units at ground level ensuring that the influx of new residents would be integrated into the local community rather than isolated from it. This is an excellent example of what can be achieved when house-builders commit to commissioning the best

Design Vision

We need to put to rest the myth that consumers only want traditional houses, just because people buy what is offered does not constitute evidence that the current housing product is market led. Consumers are a lot more diverse in their tastes than many house builders give them credit for. The culture of loft living and the development of innovative housing in the affordable housing sector by organisations such as Peabody at Bed Zed and Murray Grove demonstrate that there is an appetite for change.

Much house building suffers from a limitation of vision and design resource the market is bigger and more diverse than house builders generally think. There are opportunities to tap into huge resource of talented and exciting architects who have ideas that can enhance the quality of the environment and enhance the value of the project. The product, fashion and furniture design industry have recognised that good design and better performance can increase their market share or even turn around their fortunes as companies like Apple and Skoda have demonstrated. CABE and the ODPM have recently funded research into the impact of housing layout and design on the commercial value of new housing development for the developer. Yolande Barnes, Head of Residential Research at FPD Savills, will be discussing the initial findings later today.

The lack of sufficient examples for the website and for the Building for Life prize should be seen as a wake up call to the industry but I want to emphasise that this initiative is a partnership with the House Builders Federation and they have been supportive of its aims and responsive to our criticism. What the partners of Building for Life have learnt is that many of the problems the house-builders face are not of their own making.

Government can address some of the barriers that are preventing progress. We have published a 10 point manifesto. This outlines key policy areas that are hindering good development; they call for a more effective planning system, more brown field development opportunities, better regulations and more skilled decision-making. We urge Government to consider these measures. We are delighted that Lord Rooker will be giving his first address, in his new position as Housing Minister, to the house building industry here today.

But I must emphasise that there is no substitute to good design and we only have to look abroad to see the range of exciting housing projects being developed to realise how far behind we are. The new development of Borneo Sporenburg in Amsterdam demonstrates an exciting way housing development could go. The site is master planned by the young creative practice West 8 and sets out guidelines that ensure houses are built to a consistent scale with plot widths and parapet height defined within which residents build their own houses with complete freedom of expression. Residents are invited to be innovative and experimental in the design of their own homes but the overall neighbourhood has a coherence and order ensuring the area has a civic quality. Without setting new standards of design we will have no lasting heritage of our time to rival our Georgian and Victorian predecessors. We know well-designed housing endures but merely copying the successful styles is not the answer; pastiche only makes a mockery of our past and falsifies history. That it not to say we should re-write the rule book, we need to take the qualities of these examples and build on them, so they reflect the aspirations and technology of our time.

In Switzerland it is not uncommon for the countries leading architects such as Herzog & de Meuron, designers of London's Tate Modern, or Diener and Diener to design housing for both the volume house builder and the social sector. In the UK the best of our architects are only too keen to design housing projects but are rarely given the chance. The work of practices like Proctor Matthews, Shed KM or Haworth Tompkins, who recently completed an Award winning housing scheme at Coin Street, gives just a hint of the latent talent that is available.

Production

We are experiencing a huge divergence between housing supply and housing demand. Just as horse and carriage no longer meets our transport needs traditional forms of construction are not able to housing demand. As on-site craft skills are in decline and housing demand is increasing we therefore need to engage with new forms of production and procurement. House builders have to get to grips with new forms of partnering and off site production due to increasing shortage of skilled labour. New forms of technology and off -site production allow even greater opportunity for the end user to play a direct role in the image, detail and finish of their houses as well as reducing defects. Given that 220,000 homes are needed each year in the UK and only 135,000 were completed last year. Given that owning a home is beyond the reach of a single first time buyer on average earnings in over a third of British towns and four fifths of Greater London it would seam that there is a huge market for well designed economic homes. Providing affordable homes does not have to be the reserve of the Social Housing sector.

By securing buyers at the bottom of the property ladder you can secure their custom for life in much the same way some car manufacturers offers incentives to upgrade to the next class of model through intelligent financial structures. From starter unit to family house to retirement property you would have buyers for life. Profit share rather than reflecting an ability to build to lowest cost would reflect low term value. Securing and retaining that market will only be achieved by offering desirable well-designed houses.

We need to learn lessons from our neighbours. In Finland more than 50% of new housing uses prefabrication methods. This does not mean a reduction in choice or the proliferation of identical housing units, we can learn from the Japanese housing industry that is adopting high levels of prefabrication as well as high levels of customisation.

Typology

In addition to innovative forms of production house builders need to consider how changes to society and culture will affect their product. Changing demographics mean that the nuclear family is no longer the norm, we are seeing an increase in the number of single people living alone, 80% of the predicted increase in the demand for homes comprises single person households, and we are seeing a demand for new typologies such as live/work housing. Mixed communities and a variety of typologies are at the heart of good place making. Creative thinking and good design can provide solutions to these issues.

Environment

We have a responsibility to the environment. Building and building engineering services consume 52% of the UK energy output and are responsible for 46% of total carbon dioxide emissions, whilst current levels of water consumption in Britain are un-sustainable.

The Greenwich Millennium Village shows us how architecture can be environmentally responsible. It has combined heat and power plants within the village providing energy, which eliminates wastage and reduces C02 emissions. For homeowners, the running costs are lower. Surplus electricity can also be sold back to the National Grid system. All homes are supplied with low energy white goods and lighting. Water demand is cut by up to 30% by using water saving devices such as water efficient taps, showers, toilets, dishwashers and washing machines. In addition, surface water from the roofs, roads and pavements will be used to irrigate the extensive landscaped grounds, and further grey water re-cycling is being evaluated.

Conclusion

I have outlined a number of design issues that impact on the quality of house design and whilst environmental and procurement issues will ensure the long term success and sustainability of a project good place making has to be the first priority and the projects that will be illustrated today plus the projects illustrated on the website demonstrate careful, intelligent and considered design of houses and their wider environment.