Designers, developers and public invited to nominate good estates

A call for entries for the 2008 Building for Life awards, which celebrate best practice in the design of housing and neighbourhoods.

CABE and the Home Builders Federation are calling for entries for next year's Building for Life awards. The Building for Life standard is the national benchmark for well-designed housing in England. The awards recognise and celebrate schemes that demonstrate best practice in housing and neighbourhood design.

Two thirds of planning applications for housing still do not involve an architect. Building for Life is urging housebuilders and architects to respect each other more. Chair and leading designer Wayne Hemingway believes that the country will never get the suburban housing it deserves without a closer collaboration between architects and housebuilders. \"Unless they start talking and drop all the old stereotypes about prima donna architects and box bashing builders, we will never see the quality of housing to which everyone aspires\" (read more about Wayne's views in Design quality "lost in translation" between architects and housebuilders on the CABE site).

Accordia, Ingress Park, Abode and all the other previous Building for Life standard winners are proof of what can be achieved when architects and builders work closely together. CABE and the Home Builders Federation are now inviting designers and developers to submit schemes which demonstrate a commitment to high design standards, good place making and sustainable development.

And, for the first time, CABE is asking the public to nominate a well-designed newly built development for the 2008 Building for Life awards and tell CABE about the worst at enquiries@buildingforlife.org (see Terms and Conditions).

The closing date for entries to the Building for Life awards is 31 March 2008, and the winners will be announced in September 2008.

Building for Life is an initiative led by CABE and the Home Builders Federation. It is supported by the Civic Trust, Design for Homes, English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation.

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