By Charles Leon
When the BIID get the call to join a committee at Houses of Parliament, you go, right? Who wouldn’t? One of England’s most spectacular working buildings that is the hub of power and influence and it’s a chance to get some of our agendas across to people who may be able to make a difference. The building itself is rich with an air of expectation and of purpose. Important stuff goes on here.
Well, that was the call from APDIG (All-Party Design and Innovation Group). To join, as President of the British Institute of Interior Design (BIID), the panel in Committee room 8 to discuss Design and the Future of Housing Policy. APDIG is a forum for open debate between Parliament and the UK’s Design and Innovation communities. The BIID have been involved with this group for a few years and were invited to join the panel with Architects, Planners, Influencers and Politicians.
The Government has identified a need for an additional 300,000 new homes to be built every year for the next decade to address the current shortage. Design for these homes, often relegated to a minor priority, is one of the central issues and points to the question “what sort of society do we want to build?”. It’s all very well to say we need these many homes built in this much time, but governments must consider the type of communities we want to create. The built environment is one of the most fundamental influences on people’s quality of life and how they interact with each other.
Hosted by Barry Sheerman, MP for Huddersfield and Co-Chair of APDIG, we were joined on the panel by Analie Richards of Mikhail Riches, Chris Hildrey Designer in Residence, Design Museum and Kay Stout of Pollard Thomas Edwards and attend- ed by a host of other architects, designers, developers, contractors, educators, housing trusts financiers, journalists and writers and local authority representatives. A very lively group, all with differing interests in how people live and how we build
The Wellington Room, Committee room 8, just off one of the many corridors, is a large impressive, Pugin room with large portraits looming down from above. The panel sit at the head of a formal horseshoe-shaped table, but Barry Sheerman encourages us to keep the discussion informal and free-flowing. The purpose of this committee is to explore how design can inform housing policy, within the context of community.
Whilst it is obvious that there is insufficient housing stock coming onto the market, this wasn’t identified as the main central issue.
From our point of view, Architects, Designers and Influencers, the current thinking is wrong and short-termist. We should be looking more closely at building environments that contribute to the overall well-being of our communities rather than purely pursuing financial and investment goals. It’s not enough to build 300,000 new homes, they have to be the right homes for the right people in the right stages of their lives.
Governmental Housing policy tends to focus on achieving statistical targets, why, because these are easily measurable. But the housing and developments may not be fit for purpose. Building boxes with a one-size-fits-all mentality will not work. A family have different needs from someone coming out of School, College or University and someone thinking of retiring or downsizing will have different and changing needs. It’s not about the numbers, it’s about the quality and appropriateness of the homes.
The environment that homes are built in and their sense of community, is vitally important. There is a need to think holistically and how it interacts with new and existing housing stock and existing communities. Design has a vital role in understanding and interpreting the needs of communities and engagement with the communities to make human and community-centred buildings should be at the top of our priorities.
It’s also a question of courage and trust. Policy makers need to trust the design and architectural communities to find creative solutions to the whole range of housing needs. Rather than encouraging cookie-cutter developments which may superficially be cost effective and deliver the numbers. Policy makers need to look at deeper and more creative solutions. They are out there.
The committee will try to carry forward some of the points raised in the meeting, with a view to preparing a report for Parliament.
Overall though, it seems what is needed is a longer-term vision, one that doesn’t last the length of just one parliament, backed up by a different mind- set, one that isn’t focussed on the numbers but one that is focussed on building more long-term, sustainable environments that are built with the well-being of communities in mind. One that deals with the complex interaction of people, spaces, homes, sociology and living communities. Isn’t that what design is?
