16 COMMENT


A lesson in densifi cation


Glen Richardson Carter Jonas


Glen Richardson of Carter Jonas, explores how the Cambridgeshire district of East Barnwell shows that using land more intensively can deliver aff ordable homes, stronger services, and better places.


H


igh density sometimes has an image problem. It is often presented as the point at which development becomes excessive: more homes, taller buildings, less space and greater pressure on local services. Yet poorly designed low-density development can see less effi cient use of land, entrenchment of car dependence, and leave shops and community facilities without enough people to sustain them. But instead of regarding density as a problem, it is better to ask what it can achieve.


Centre for Cities’ report ‘Flat Britain: The urban density gap and how to close it’ estimates that British urban cores have a density gap of at least 2.3 million homes compared with similar cities in France and apan. t identifi es the missing form not as towers, but as mid-rise apartments of four to nine storeys.


DENSITY AS A TOOL, NOT AN OBJECTIVE The test of good density is whether the additional homes support usable open space, safe streets, local services and a mix of homes


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that meets local need. More residents means more footfall for shops and serices. Streets enefi t from more natural surveillance, and higher-density development can mae more effi cient use of infrastructure. However, higher density needs careful masterplanning: parking must be handled well; private and shared amenity should be planned together; building heights should respond to their role in the townscape and ground fl oor spaces matter because they provide outside and community space for more residents. Density also has a placemaking role. In a low-density suburb, a denser local centre can create hierarchy, identity and orientation. It can act as a landmark and a node: the place where routes meet, services cluster and public life becomes more visible.


FROM 18 HOMES TO 120 HOMES East Barnwell, a part of Cambridge for which Carter Jonas prepared the regeneration strategy in 2022, provides an emerging case study in how carefully planned increases in density can support regeneration.


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