{"id":741187,"date":"2024-05-21T07:00:50","date_gmt":"2024-05-21T06:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/?p=741187"},"modified":"2024-05-22T15:35:53","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T14:35:53","slug":"blueprints-for-change-how-homes-designed-for-children-could-revitalise-uk-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/opinion\/blueprints-for-change-how-homes-designed-for-children-could-revitalise-uk-housing","title":{"rendered":"Press play: How designing for children could revitalise British housing"},"content":{"rendered":"

A vision for suburban housing<\/span><\/h3>\n

We need a new vision for housing, a new architecture and urbanism that works for people in our towns and cities and in our rural areas.<\/p>\n

Through research for my book All to Play for: How to design child-friendly housing<\/i>, which will be published next year by RIBA Publishing, I try to paint that vision. The book looks at development approaches and, along with in-depth interviews and the design and engagement experience of our practice, offers a new housing and urbanism model that focuses on the needs of children and young people \u2013 and in doing so creates places that work for everyone.<\/p>\n

The final chapter of the book examines case studies in the UK, Denmark, The Netherlands and Spain, dividing them into low and high-density. At very high density, it is complicated \u2013 but not impossible, I believe \u2013 to meet the needs of everybody.<\/p>\n

But at low densities it is much easier and in this essay I put forward a vision for suburban and rural development that sets out to work for the significant minority of the population that is being harmed by thoughtless planning and design.<\/p>\n

Designing for the 35%<\/b><\/h3>\n

More than a fifth (22 per cent) of the UK population are children under the age of 18. Add to this just one attendant parent or carer, and we have a minimum of 35 per cent of the population. This group has a specific set of needs when it comes to housing, but one that is routinely overlooked.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We know this through our work looking at policy and housing layouts and through talking to children, young people and their parents and carers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We know that this groups spends a lot of time close to home and we see a huge variation in the quality of their lives that are a result of different housing layouts. For example, observation research and focus groups show that some children have plenty of time and space for play, but many have very little, or none.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, we have been working with the Van Leer Foundation, which invests in projects worldwide dedicated to supporting young children, carers and communities. The foundation supports the Urban 95 Academy at LSE for city leaders and more recently has expanded its interests to look at housing.<\/p>\n

The project for \u2006Van Leer has given us the opportunity to talk to parents of very young children in focus groups in Dublin, London and Chicago. We found shocking levels of isolation, which we know is in part due to poor neighbourhood layouts.<\/p>\n

Why does it matter? There is a fundamental link between the amount of time and space a child has to play freely and their happiness, health and wellbeing. Play builds independence and confidence and it also gives parents and carers time to do other things: take a break, write an email, or do some housework. It is not a \u2018nice to have\u2019; it is a fundamental part of life that we need to design for and support.<\/p>\n

Evidence<\/h3>\n

Eight years ago we published early research findings into mainly low-density schemes across England in The Architects\u2019 Journal<\/i>. Through more than 240 hours of observations we had discovered how residents used external spaces and found that the most dominant activity was children playing, but that the level of play varied widely.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the schemes where we saw more children outside, we saw more adults, too. We found that, where there was real doorstep play on shared space directly outside homes, it was by far the most well-used. Since then we have delved further, working more and more with children and young people to hear at first hand how they use space and what they want.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Doorstep play<\/p>\n\t

Source:ZCD Architects<\/p><\/div>\n

We have also talked to parents about what they can gain from good housing layouts \u2013 and what it is like for those that don\u2019t have them. And we have spoken to people without children as well.<\/p>\n

The maps that we showcased in the AJ in 2016 have been developed into a site analysis tool that can fairly accurately predict where spaces will be well used. We call these \u2018Heat Maps\u2019 and we think they should be used when designing housing of any density.<\/p>\n

Mapping places<\/h3>\n

We can analyse housing layouts in a systematic way and the Heat Maps are one important tool to help us with this. The table below looks at four low-density case studies from my book, by four different architects, comparing them with an edge-of-town housebuilder scheme typical of any that can be found across the country.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Only 6 per cent of homes are designed by architects and the majority of these are privately owned, not new build, meaning architectural thinking and design is not part of the housebuilder model. The four case study schemes, on the other hand, are designed by architects. They were chosen for the book as deliberately designed for play and social use. They are:<\/p>\n