UN EJEMPLO: EL DESASTRE MEDIOAMBIENTAL EN ESTADOS

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Lancaster City Council with the Homes and Communities Agencycommissioned a development competition to fundamentally improve the quality of the housing stock in Morecambe’s West End. Morecambe suffered a complex set of social issues, including a transient population based in multiple occupation, poor quality properties formerly used as guesthouses, high crime rates and benefit dependency.

The project objective was to attract a new population of families, and single persons or couples to create a more balanced and sustainable community. The scheme also sought to act as a catalyst for further regeneration changing perceptions, and raising the aspirations of the local community.

Places for People with Peter Barber Architects have responded with an innovative solution to this seaside location, which works with the existing street network and tackles the sometimes

difficult interaction between public and private space by taking most of the private space to roof terraces and creating a block pattern of single aspect dwellings. Nearly all properties have a private courtyard which includes services, refuse, storage, and cycle parking, leading to their own front door, spacious home and private roof terrace. All homes have an allocated on-street parking space viewed directly from the property, whilst two pocket parks create a community focus and promote social interaction.

The proposed 1.06ha scheme provides for 101 homes at 95dph including 31 two-bedroom houses, 39 three-bedroom houses, 4 four-bedroom houses and 18 one-bedroom apartments. The site is generally two storeys in height, with three-storey elements on the busier streets and a single five-storey dwelling acting as a landmark. An additional nine homes are proposed as duplex live- work units. The development clearly indicates that high density does not necessitate high rise.

Proposed low rise, high-density development at Chatsworth Gardens has created a strong sense of identity, generous space standards and innovate ways of providing amenity areas on roof terraces and courtyards.

• Design – Well designed housing and other buildings with generous space standards and high-quality materials.

• Quality of the public realm – A legible, convenient and stimulating public realm.

• Private outdoor space – or high-quality communal space.

• Parking – Accommodate adequate and appropriate car parking levels to meet the needs of the users without dominating or detracting from the external environment.

• Management – Effective management, including the formation of residents’ groups as trusts or associations in housing projects (see chapter 5).

Space standards 038

The size of a dwelling is one of the main factors in defining who can live there and how they can use their home. Dwelling size often determines how comfortable people feel within a space and how much privacy the home offers. Good design and creative use of space can achieve both high quality and appropriate densities.

Providing homes with adequate or generous space standards does not conflict with providing appropriate densities. The UK currently has the lowest space standards in Europe, with average homes at 76m2_{. Yet we also build}

to some of the lowest densities in Europe. In comparison, the Georgian house achieved some of the highest densities in the UK, while providing generous, flexible and adaptable spaces.3

2.4.3 Measuring density

There are many ways of measuring density, each of which provides different information. It is useful to understand what the differences are and what they can help to measure. The most commonly used measures include:

Dwellings per hectare (dph)

This is most commonly used measure by the planning system and developers because it is easy to monitor, with each house completion being registered. It does

not, however, give useful information as to how dense a development will look. Apartments at 60dph may actually have a smaller built volume than larger houses at 30dph with related garaging. Using dwellings per hectare to identify different character areas on a masterplan is not, by itself, reliable.

Although it is usual to multiply housing numbers by an occupancy rate (say between 2-2.2) to give a figure for the size of local population, this is only a rule of thumb.

Square metres per hectare

Measuring the amount of floorspace per hectare will indicate how efficiently land is being used and will give a much better idea of the visual density of a development. While dph indicates residential density, square metres per hectare reveals development intensity. For developers, it provides a key measure of value, with floorspace multiplied by price per square metre showing income generated.

Floor area ratio (FAR) or plot ratio

Floor area ratio and plot ratio are the same. They express the ratio between gross floor area and site area. They indicate the intensity of land use and give some indication of massing volumes. Specifying minimum and maximum values is sometimes useful in development coding.

Bedspaces per hectare

This measure will theoretically provide a more reliable estimate of catchment population in residential areas than dph. But it is an indicator of population capacity rather than actual use, as some dwellings may be under-occupied.

Habitable rooms per hectare

This provides a useful measure of the extent of the building stock in a given area and the efficiency of land use. Both habitable room and bedspace densities will give an indication of resident populations and an accurate calculation of population capacity. This can be helpful in calculating the likely demand for amenities and services such as public transport.

INTEGRATED DESIGN 2.4

Achieving a high density, mixed use development