12 RUTH TALKS
The big pressure now is not for off-site construction, Birkbeck believes, but finding a way to design homes to Code Level 4 using our traditional methods of brick and block. The country that meets this level of standards with a construction approach nearest to ours is Denmark, so Birkbeck says ‘we are organising visits for housebuilders to see how they put their homes together.’
Suttons Wharf South in east London is, like all the projects on this page, shortlisted for the Housing Design Awards 2009. Stock Woolstencroft is the architect
Birkbeck wants to make these homes better, but in a very specific way. ‘We try and act in those areas where there is an economic decision to be made about design,’ he says. Funded initially by the housebuilding industry and still entirely on a project by project basis, even though some of the money now comes from the public sector, Birkbeck’s interest is very much in working with the industry rather than attempting to dictate from outside.
He has a law degree, and before joining Design for Homes in 2000, worked as a journalist, most notably as business editor on Building magazine. So he has an interest in how industries work, rather than just in the end product. ‘Housebuilding is more about accountancy and law and performance criteria than people give credit for,’ he says. Because of this, he is keen on changes that are possible within the constraints under which housebuilders operate, and in not criticising their products – as, for example, CABE frequently does. ‘They can’t afford to overhaul their entire design,’ he explains, ‘but they can fine tune it.’ So, he says, ‘If I ring up with specific ideas for things that they want to crack, they will listen.’
Queensbridge Quarter, London E8 by Levitt Bernstein
Over the years these specific ideas have ranged from means of improving car parking, on which he wrote a manual with English Partnerships, to better designs of hallways. He has taken senior staff from most of the major housebuilders to see the exemplary housing in Hammarby, Sweden, and believes that the ideas are beginning to filter through.
It is because of the way that housebuilders work that Birkbeck is sceptical of ‘modern methods of construction’, the much- vaunted fad of a few years ago for embracing off-site construction. ‘I think that the method of selling MMC doesn’t suit the cash flow and business model of most housebuilders,’ Birkbeck says. ‘They have to enter into a contract for say 50 houses and pay up-front for half of them. But the industry likes to pay for construction as much as possible out of capital receipts.’ And, he says, it likes to be flexible, only starting construction when it is certain the demand is there. So the one prefabricated element that the industry does like is a prefabricated foundation system, because it allows it to accelerate its starts.
Upton Site C in Northampton by HTA
Another big concern is designing for people as they get older, and attempting to remove that scary transition where homes suddenly become uninhabitable, with the trauma and cost of needing to move rapidly to supported accommodation. This is a project supported by the Department for Health and the Department for Communities and Local Government, which wants to learn from the relatively simple solutions that other countries have found. ‘I am supposed to research the best examples in Europe,’ says Birkbeck, with some satisfaction, ‘and take everyone from Berkeley Group's Tony Pidgely to Brad Pitt to see them.’ He does though admit that Brad Pitt’s involvement is more of a wish from his sponsors than a reality.
Another, totally different, project is looking at the accommodation that is currently provided for gypsies on settled sites. They have a bathroom, laundry facilities and a day room, typically both unsatisfactory and expensive.
As with all the projects, Birkbeck is confident of finding a solution that will probably not be perfect but will be better than the current one. He is an optimistic pragmatist, and believes housing standards are improving. One of Design for Homes’ many roles is to run the Housing Design Awards. The results, he says, get better every year. Let’s hope he’s right.
Woolmer Gate in Liphook, Hampshire, by Re-Format, is in the project category. See the full shortlist at
www.designforhomes.org/hda
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