Daniel Leon, director at Square Feet Architects, looks at how clever architecture can help mitigate the housing crisis.
For decades now, debates around Britain’s planning systems have weighed heavy on our housing projects and our built environment. Controversies rage around our shortage of homes, our disregard for affordability, and our impact on the Great British countryside. In the face of our national housing crisis, ‘greenbelt’ has become an unpopular word for many, while attitudes that were once associated with environmental foresight are now attributed to nimbyism and backwards thinking. What’s clear is that something needs to change in the British property landscape; what’s less clear is how that change can be achieved.
The well-trodden debate on how we accommodate for the UK’s growing housing needs without impacting too heavily on the natural environment has often led to the phrase ‘build up, not out’. Many feel that the only way to meet the nation’s accommodation needs without sacrificing our natural landscape is to build higher and higher in existing urban areas. Such high-rise accommodation, however, provokes its own set of socio-economic and aesthetic problems, and Britain has yet to fully embrace the ‘build up, not out’ attitude. In the face of these two imperfect options, there exists another solution to help tackle our housing crisis – building smarter properties through the adoption of a mixed-use design and functionality redevelopment.
Don’t build further, build smarter
The lay of the land is this: Britain is in urgent need of more accommodation, with roughly 1.2 million households on local waiting lists. Construction strategies over recent decades have brought with them social and environmental challenges – from the impact of urban sprawl on our countryside to the difficulties associated with living in densely populated areas. When developers build outwards into greenfield sites, it’s often at the expense not only of the natural environment but also of the residents who settle in these new neighbourhoods. Without the presence of existing communities with shops and services, inhabitants of isolated rural developments are left without the adequate amenities needed to live a comfortable life.
From an aesthetic perspective, too, the homogeneous lines of modular housing do little to inspire. Indeed, in his recent speech on England’s housebuilding ambitions, the Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove cited beauty as a key principle for the nation’s long-term development plan. There is no reason to dismiss the importance of appearance when it comes to new property development or undervalue the positive effect that living somewhere beautiful can have on the lives of individuals.
The need to increase commercial to residential conversions
In his speech on the subject of Britain’s housing plans, Michael Gove proposed to make it easier to create new houses from properties that were previously designated for commercial use. To drive this ambition, the Government proposes to establish a consultation on planning laws, exploring the potential of increasing commercial to residential conversions across the nation. Some movement has already been made to embrace the role of conversion in offsetting our housing shortages. Between 2021 and 2022, over 10,000 properties were converted into housing by virtue of permitted development rights – allowing buildings to be redeveloped for residential use without the need for planning permission.
The spread of this policy, has, however, been limited by planning constraints, which restrict the potential for unused offices to be converted into housing, following an update in the rules around residential conversions in 2021. The quality of homes must, of course, be paramount – meaning that we need to find architectural solutions to ensure office conversions can meet housing standards. Once renovated, these existing buildings could provide significant floor space for housing and community services, where they would otherwise lie empty or only partially used. This line of thinking could be extended even further. Britain does have a housing crisis, but it is a highly localized one: namely in London and the broader Southeast. This is simply not the case in less prosperous parts of the country, where housing stock is plentiful. Perhaps one prong of the solution to the housing crisis would be to – through investment and incentives – encourage graduates to settle in these places? Again, the problem is one of perspective – not just brick and mortar.
The value of mixed-use and reused
Tackling the housing crisis by embracing a mixed-use approach to development, and by converting commercial properties into new homes, benefits both house hunters and building owners. A mixed-use development provides landlords with a diversified portfolio, reducing risk and thereby increasing the value of their property by comparison with single-use spaces. On the other hand, where a vacant property offers little to no value, investing in residential conversion gives building owners the opportunity to see long-term returns on their assets.
Architecture is all about innovation – designing something new and building a novel space from our thoughts and ideas. At a point when our current planning systems are failing to keep pace with social and environmental demands, we should channel this inherent innovation into creating homes that will address the housing needs of the moment and remain relevant long into the future.
