Section: Building & Regeneration
Better Design Standards for Public Funded Homes in London
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, launched the London Housing Design Guide for consultation at a conference organised to discuss his London Housing Strategy, which was published in May 09.
The Guide sets new minimum standards to meet the commitment to improve the quality of publicly funded homes built in the Capital from 2011.
The Guide identifies six key areas of design that new developments will have to address, including:
- Ensuring a mix of housing sizes, types and tenures at a range of densities for the diverse needs of Londoners.
- Better design of entrances and shared circulation areas, with measures to design out crime at the outset of a development, as well as car parking and cycle and waste storage.
- Focusing on the spaces between and around buildings so that developments integrate with the wider public realm.
- New minimum internal space standards, including guidance on the size and layout of different rooms to ensure greater flexibility of space in the home - the minimum space standards recommended are broadly 10% higher than the 1961 Parker Morris benchmark.
- Making homes more comfortable places to live and enjoy by making them quieter, lighter and better ventilated.
- Ensuring homes are designed to meet climate change and are suitable for warmer summers and wetter winters.
The new guide also consolidates existing design standards to reduce the burden on housing developers, cutting the number of requirements they must refer to from over 300 to 90, as well as on the public purse, and could eventually be applied to private sector homes once incorporated as policy in the revised London Plan.
