Section: Conferences & Exhibitions

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A new approach to residential masterplanning is needed if the Government is to deliver its vision of meeting housing needs by creating sustainable and attractive new communities, according to Dr Patrick Clarke, Director of Tribal's Urban Studio.

Speaking at the Masterplanning 2008 Conference in London, Dr Clarke told delegates that current approaches are simply too complex, slow and unfocused and are unlikely to meet the housing aspirations of future generations.

He said:

"There is little evidence to suggest that the planning system, for all its complexity and cost, is producing new neighbourhoods that will stand good comparison with places built over 100 years ago by an army of small builders armed with little more than a pattern book from their local library.

"The current system is producing volumes of complex technical studies costing many millions of pounds, while losing sight of the fundamental principles of creating robust and attractive places to live. This is delivering poor value for money for current and future generations.

Dr Clarke argued that evidence for this can be found in CABE's recent National Housing Audit. This found that, when assessed against the Building for Life Standard, only 18% of new housing built by the volume house builders was rated as either Very Good or Good while almost a third (29%) was rated as Poor.

He further added:

"Even more concerning is the fact that when CABE looked at the quality of new housing being built in suburban contexts, in other words the locations most similar to those now earmarked for major greenfield development, the results were substantially worse.

Only 4% of schemes were considered to be Good and a staggering 43% ranked as Poor. In CABE's assessment this meant that 'they had not even begun to address the Building for Life Standard'."

Dr Clarke continued:

"We need a much simpler approach to laying out new neighbourhoods, that is based on a better appreciation of the best of our urban tradition. Many of our best and most desirable places to live have a very straightforward structure of streets and squares fronted by terraced and semi-detached homes and with cars parked on the street.

"These neighbourhoods, found in every town and city across the country, have succeeded in meeting the housing needs and aspirations of successive generations and remain popular today. They have adapted to major social changes such as mass car ownership and changing household composition much better than more recent neighbourhoods.

"Building on the urban design principles which underpin these successful and enduring neighbourhoods, while embracing modern architecture and sustainable technologies, should be the recipe for the neighbourhoods of tomorrow. Many of these design principles are already in place in the Government/CABE guide Better Places to Live and the recently published Manual for Streets."

Dr Clarke identified key risks in current practice which include:

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Reporting on February 2008

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