DISCUSIÓN DE RESULTADOS

From 1666 when there was a fire outbreak in London (that is, the Great Fire of London), the housing quality and minimum space requirements have been given much consideration across the UK. The enactment of the London Building Act in 1667 to the Public Health Act of 1875 had examined various minimum requirements for newly constructed dwellings such as wall thickness, size of rooms, number of storey, floor-to- ceiling height, width of streets, fire place, chimney, drainage, lavatory, private garden and many other important features (Housing Design Standards, 2010). The minimum requirements were constantly reviewed for decades until the latter part of 1910s when a new space standard was introduced. In the early 1910s, private investors such as landlords

33 and developers were major housing providers in the UK with over 80% of total dwellings financed by them with provision for different categories of dwellings to meet the needs of working to middle-class renters (HATC, 2006; Mayor of London, 2009). During the period, social housing was provided by local councils and necessary standards for dwellings regarding accessibility and size of internal spaces were regulated by the authority in charge of public health and bye-law regulations. The private housing built during the period was financed by charities such as the Peabody Trust but most houses were built according to individual design subject to approval by the regulatory body in line with the existing recommendations for provision of spaces in dwellings (The Public Health Act of 1875) which specified at least 14m² private garden space at the back of every dwelling and not less than 2.4m floor-to-ceiling height in all spaces (Woodman & Greeves, 2008; Housing Design Standards, 2010). The Act also indicated proportionality of windows in bedrooms which must relate to size of the bedrooms as well as provision for toilets and drainage in all dwellings. From 1880 to 1910, there was steady growth in the housing sector and over 2.5million terraced housing units were constructed within the period.

The Tudor Walters committee was inaugurated in 1917 to conduct another study on UK housing situations and the outcome of the report led to the approval of the Housing Act

(1919) used to develop Homes Fit for Heroes5 after the World War I (London Councils,

2013). The report also included publicly funded housing for people with approved standards and number of occupants per dwellings. The standards and densities considered

in the report were earlier used by Ebenezer Howard6 for the Garden cities and provided

recommendations for renting of publicly funded housing by people (HATC, 2006; CABE, 2010; Housing Design Standards, 2010). Some of the recommendations of the report include: in a 3-bed dwelling, two of the bedrooms must accommodate two beds at a time. Also, in a 2-bed dwelling, one of the bedrooms must accommodate two beds at a time, this was observed in many post-war prefabricated houses such as Arcon house built in the 1940s (Figure 3.1). Also, ground floor dwellings must have a minimum of 3-bed; each

5

Homes Fit for Heroes are the dwellings constructed for the First World War veterans in the UK. In total, they were about 200,000 dwellings built for the war veterans.

6

Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928) was a notable British social reformer and inventor who developed the idea of Garden city of how people can live in harmony with nature. He published Garden Cities of To-morrow in 1898 and developed some notable garden city projects such as Lecthworth Garden City and Welwyn Garden City. Parker and Unwin also contributed to the overall development of the Garden City Movement.

34 dwelling must have bathroom and cool area for storing food items; the density of dwellings per acre must be at least 12 (less than 30 dwellings per hectare) with a minimum floor area of 79.4m² for 3-bed with no living area and 98m² for 3-bed house with a living area (Holmes, 2006; HATC, 2006; Mayor of London, 2009; CABE, 2010); provision of front and rear gardens for cottages and at least 21m between two opposite row housing (HATC, 2006; Mayor of London, 2009; Housing Design Standards, 2010). The green areas provided in front and rear gardens of cottages minimise the impact of summertime high temperatures by absorbing the surrounding heat. Also, the green areas improve the air quality and rate of fresh air that gets into the spaces.

Figure 3.1: Floor plan of post-war prefabricated 2-bed house by Arcon with provision for one of the bedrooms to accommodate 2 beds at a time (left) and view of the living area which indicates change in design of the floor plan and construction of the houses (right) (Gilbert, 2011).

The number of UK houses increased by 52% from the 1920s to 1930s due to rapid development of council housing especially in suburban areas and private developers were involved in development of houses during the period (HATC, 2006; CABE, 2010). Some of the houses provided during the period (from the 1920s to 1930s) were built in line with the recommendations provided in the Tudor Walters report of 1919. At the latter part of 1944, another report on minimum housing space standards known as the Dudley Report was recommended (CABE, 2010; Housing Design Standards, 2010). The report re- examined the standards of UK housing and identified some limitations including non- availability of materials, inadequate housing and trained labour in the sector to build new conventional houses. The report approved the development of detached houses for people that desired to have one and recommended extensive use of non-conventional and prefabrication methods of construction for housing with improved minimum space standards.

35 From 1944 to 1949, a new set of minimum space requirements published in Housing Manuals was introduced. The report stated recommendations concerning design of houses and estates, site layout, types of dwellings, demography, size of internal spaces, heating and cooling requirements, insulation, methods of construction and new materials for local councils (Milner & Madigan, 2004; Mayor of London, 2006; CABE, 2010). Also, construction of 2-bed and 3-bed houses to provide temporary dwellings for people was included in the report (Mayor of London, 2006; CABE 2010). The report was revised in 1949 and approved a range of 84m² to 88m² as the minimum space requirements for 3- bed house compared to the previous manual released in 1944 that recommended from 74m² to 84m² for 3-bed houses.

In the early 1950s, the existing minimum space standards were changed by the Conservative government that took over and influenced the UK housing policy (Milner & Madigan, 2004; Mayor of London, 2006; CABE, 2010; Gallent et al., 2010). A new set of

minimum space requirements (Macmillan’s standards) focusing on ‘People’s House’ was

recommended with floor area of 83.6m² considered for 3-bed house. The government through the Ministry of Housing and Local Government approved the minimum space standards for apartments and maisonettes but were considerably smaller in terms of internal floor area when compared to minimum space standards stated in 1949 Housing

Manuals indicating additional 9.3m² for 3-bed house. Also, Macmillan’s standards

recommended the use of conventional methods of construction for building UK houses due to availability of traditional materials and stated that non-conventional construction methods will no longer be used for construction of dwellings.7 The standards also favoured private developers to commence construction of low-cost accommodation with focus on blocks of flats rather than houses.