stephen hill - how to live more sustainably: aligning personal and professional values

“Delivering Better Places”

Design Skills Symposium 2011, Tollbooth, Stirling

Stephen HillC20 Futureplanners

How to live more sustainably?Aligning Personal and Professional Values

Stephen Hill, C2O futureplanners

Dare to be in – subordinate !

Shelley McNamara, Grafton ArchitectsWhat would be your dream commission?

Design is only one component

Something like Ilôt 13 in Geneva, which developed organically with a mixture of squatters, students, cooperatives and private sector housing, new and old.

The way a project is commissioned determines the outcome.

Les Grottes

“Unhealthy and unsuitable for the imperatives of modernity of a growing city”

1977 Referendum halts city councilplans…“the inhabitants havingdemocratically invited themselves to the decision-makers table.”

“…doomed to integral destruction”

“Instead of blocking inadequate projects, the inhabitants become genuine actors…”

Europan 1991Ilôt 13

Atelier 89

“More participative, and ecological approaches…suppress the car parking…new housing… workspace… cultural centre”

“…half the cost of classic retrofits.”

Exhibition Road, London

"When we invested in a place… it becomes alive”

DIY Solar Panels…catalyst for the country

The Big Society

…. everyone has a stake based on equal rights and where they pay their dues by exercising responsibility in return, and where local communities shape their own futures.

“Too much has been imposed from above, when experience shows that success depends on communities themselves having the power and taking the responsibility.

It’s no good officials in Whitehall or even the Town Hall telling people what is needed in their street.”

BUT…it w

asn’t h

im, it

was

…

“I want to spark a… !!!

A bottom up revolution ….

from the top…

with support from the highest levels of government…

Neighbourhood planning and Community Right to Build

Do something unprecedented… We are too used to

accepting the boundaries we ourselves have created...

Greatest task will be convincing people they exist at all…

Change the

culture…

The Bill is not enough…

What makes a good sustainable neighbourhood?

“A wonderful place to grow up”Colin Ward

Design Paradox:Ye Olde Placemakynge and Spatial Plannyng…

“The exceptional urban and environmental qualities we esteem in many of our older cities were achieved with a very modest input of resources, and by a careful and evolving response to the needs of their inhabitants.”Ralph Erskine, Architect

“Specifying in a planthat developmentmust be sustainable isno more useful asguidance to a developerthan describing a pieceof music as beautifultells us anything about

what it sounds like”

Design Conundrum: Do it like I say…

Rob Cowan - The Dictionary of Urbanism

“We must learnto see that

everyproblem thatconcerns us…always leads tothe question ofhow we live”Wendell Berry "Solving for pattern – finding solutionsthat solve multiple problems”

Design Solution: Do it like we do…

“We haven’t done enough on the design…

that’s a major area for improvement” (John Prescott)

Why are we so pre-occupied with “design”?

CONTROL !

Landowner Control “Vision for Britain”

Poundbury Design Guide• Stretcher bond…not permitted • Soldier arches…not allowed • Shiplap boards...not permitted• Parking of caravans, boats or

trailers…not allowed• There shall be no flat roofs• Permission will not be given to

demolish chimneys• Windows with asymmetric

subdivision…not permitted• Bathroom windows should not

be obscured or patterned glass• Woven panels of wooden

fencing…not allowed

“Judicious mixing (of chimney pots) will give a feeling of the collective roofscapes having evolved”

“Windows and doors shall be built entirely of timber”

Public Interest Control

Design Code143 pages

You can have any house you like…providing it’s…

BLUE !

“…uniformly depressing” Another developer

“It’s like Beirut…” Germaine Greer in the Guardian, September 2009

Score analysis: Kickstart funded schemes (136)

9%

10%

27%

54%

Very Good (16+) Good (14-15.5) Average (10-13.5) Poor (0-9.5)

House builder5 or more schemes submitted

Total SchemesSubmitted

[66% All]

Scores>10

Scores< 10

Scores >14

Barratt 32 9 23 2Bellway 24 7 17 3Bovis 8 2 6 0Countryside 11 6 5 3Crest Nicholson 6 2 4 1Galliford Try 14 8 6 6Gentoo [HA] 9 2 7 0Gladedale 5 1 4 0Keepmoat 12 4 8 2Lovell 6 5 1 2Miller 8 1 7 1Persimmon 26 1 25 1Swan New Homes [HA] 5 2 3 1Taylor Wimpey 6 0 6 0TOTAL 172 50 122 22Urban Splash 4 4 0 3

LPA5 or moreschemes

TotalScheme

sEntered

Score>10

Score< 10

Score >14

Low ScoringHouse

builders <10

High ScoringHouse

Builders >14

Birmingham City

9 4 5 1 Bellway/Miller/Persimmon

Co. Durham[New

Unitary]

5 0 5 0 Barratt/Keepmoat

Leeds City 6 6 0 4 Barratt/Bellway

Miller/Urban Splash

Liverpool City 8 4 4 3 Bellway/LovellManchester

City7 6 1 3 Lovell

Northumberland

[New Unitary]

3 0 3 0 Barratt/Gentoo

Rochdale 6 4 2 0 PersimmonSolihull 7 2 5 0 Bellway

[all 7 schemes]Stockton-on-

Tees6 1 5 0 Bellway/

Gladedale/Keepmoat/

BarrattWarrington 5 0 5 0 Barratt/

Miller/Persimmon

Freiburg: Co-producing Design and values for living

Smiley West• Local Authority arms length enabling company• Recruit and support 10 ‘building groups’ • Masterplan and design code • Construction management• 7.5 acre/3 hectare site• 190 homes – 65+ dwellings/hectare

Karlsruhe Nordstadt

“Thank goodness, it’s not Vauban”

Managed co-production

Family Passivhaus group

A grown up politics of design… ‘Secure by Living Together’

Barrier free group

Lower cost family group

High value detached and semi-detached villas

Mid-market family group

“Managing our co-existence in shared space” Prof. Patsy Healey – Definition of Spatial Planning

Coop Mika Smiley BarracksKarlsruhe

Self-refurbishment: Flats for family and single people

Mixed uses and community facilities

Diversity and maturity in mainstream politics and housing markets - Germany

Tübingen Südstadt

Karlsruhe, Hamburg, Leipzig….

Project Vauban, Freiberg

The Tübingen way…Co-production of shared space

The English way…space as commodity

Trust…in the design code…

This is all there is …andco-production through dialogue

How many pages does your Design Code have?

Alternative public practice• Pelham Grove Coop N17• The Game>>Planning for

Real• Brief: “not look like a

council house”

40 years on-Sanford Coop, Railway Cuttings,Lewisham…60% cut in CO2

Resident controlled market housingThe Ralph Erskine Test of time, and skills and ideas we have lost

The Hall and Hallgate, Blackheath 1957

The trouble with planners is…The Architect in Society, Keith Godwin

SPAN Housing at Corner Green…

…50 years on

“Resident-controlled management companies may sound dully utilitarian, but have been crucial to their success.” Tony Aldous, former resident and architectural writer

“My particular interest was the formation of the courtyard which I thought was a dead space. [It] is not a dead space. It is actually circulation”Eric Lyons

Wesley Square Co-ownership, North Kensington

Community and Private Self-buildDETR Housing Design Award citation:• “ a microcosm of what could be

achieved on other sites all over the country by harnessing the imagination and skills of ordinary people.”

• “that indefinable quality which marks out the outstanding from the excellent

Sussex Road, London N19 1999

The Diggers, Brighton 1998

Ashley Vale BfL Gold Award 2010• 37 homes with affordable business space…started in 2002. • Built on a former scaffold yard.• Grew from local opposition to original redevelopment proposals• Urban sites with “a rural feel” with a nature reserve.• Site layout “creates pleasant, friendly public spaces”• “Relatively high levels of parking are balanced by a home zone

approach…to create attractive streets that feel safe for pedestrians.”

Old people look after themselves… HAPPIer and cheaper than the council

Tenant Management Coop

355 Queensbridge Rd

Springhill Co-housing Stroud

“Not my weeds…you mean our weeds!”

“Weirdy…they are not normal.” Ward Councillor (from the Big Society Party) at Planning Committee

Definitely not normal…

Threshold Centre, DorsetFirst HCA grant funded mixed tenure co-housing with Synergy Housing

Shared facilities include:• The stone farmhouse for visiting

guests, and shared meals • 1 acre community market garden• Laundry• Car pool

Commitments for all residents: • 4 hours per week of unpaid time to

help look after the shared facilities, and do cooking

• 1 car and 1 pet per household• Paying share of the running costs

of shared facilities• Before taking up residence,

spending up to 4 nights here, for the new resident and community to get to know each other.

Joint Venture Self DevelopmentHearthstone Co-housing N. Denver, Colorado

33 leasehold houses and flats with a 4,800 sq. ft. common house on a 1.6 acre site.

The community was the JV first phase of a ‘new urbanist’ redevelopment in the historic North Denver neighbourhood.

The model for Community Right to BuildCornwall CLT Programme 2007 17 villages – 120+ homes

Unique partnerships…enabling district councils, theircommunities, Carnegie UK Trust,and an RSL

Blisland CLT on Bodmin MoorDefin

itely not n

ormal…

St. Minver CLT Average house price £650,000Market value £350,000Cost including land £120,000

12 houses 12 monthsOn time – On budget

A social movement ?Voluntary taxation?Or just compliance with policy for affordability ‘in perpetuity’ ?

Definitely not normal…

Spatial Planning & Placemaking Outcomes• Community membership and

ownership• All incomes and tenures• Medium and high density• Value for money• Long term stewardship• Life in the space between the

buildings• Social Capital for the care of

the place and people• Resident satisfaction and

wellbeing • Sustainable living and

resilience through social organisation

Material Considerations?

Definitely not normal…

Big Placemaking…

Nice design… but how do you actually make the place?

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

Phase 31

Phase 31

Completing the vision…

• Building centres and along connections

• Diversity of housing provider

• Early adopter movement patterns

• Interim Uses & Services• Town utilities• Backfill spaces in

between• Roles of new residents• Spaces left over for

possibilities

Design Leadership doesn't equal control

Co-production… or making places with communitiesNew (old) ideas:• Culture, Skills

and Competence• Control and

Accountability• Scale• Mixed economy

- Self-help - Social Enterprise - Commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjrIVjSK6oA

Values into action“Planning is not avalue free activity. Planners have tounderstand howtheir values affect thechoices they make inboth choosing how tolook at an issue, andhow to turn theresults into reality”

Prof. Bill PetermanNeighbourhood Planning and Community Based Development 2000

“Cities have thecapability of

providingsomething foreverybody, only because and only when, they arecreated by

everybody.”Jane Jacobs in ‘Life and Deathof Great American Cities’

Value norms…

Fitting the place to the people• “People learn from each other

about their own creative powers”Jacobs: The Economy of Cities

• Ordinary people overcome everyday constraints on living, by:- adapting- improvising- transforming- trial and errorHamdi: The Placemakers Guide to building communities

• “There is a positive function of disorder in cities – energy and lack of control go hand in hand” Sennett on Jacobs

Planning as debate and co-production

• Loose fit masterplans and design codes

• Planning for Possibilities and Adaptivity

• Creative use of present and past planning techniques

• Culture change in planning…different tasks

• Formal process of “design” ends

• Design as “living” begins

• Scale and Identity • Intimacy of place

and people• Loud and quiet

architecture • Unlocking creativity

More than ticking theboxes…

Design Leadership?

Being a professional

“It is no longer possible for us to masquerade as disinterested, or objective professionals, applying our techniques with equal ease to those clients we agree with, as well as to those we disagree with. We are, in effect, the client for all our projects, for it is our own society we are affecting through our actions.” (1972)

The magic of

design…time to

break free from the

spell