Housing for new towns

Housing estates and subdivisions 

Planning housing areas for a single aspect of the public good tends to produce an unnacceptable degree of uniformity. The history of housing layout shows many instances of well-intentioned specialists grabbing petals from the six-lobed flower of life. Measures taken for the public good have been pushed to the point where they have damaged the public interest. When too many petals have gone, housing estates have died and the dwellings have had to be demolished. Countries tend toward 'standard solutions' to the 'housing problem'. Russia and China favour appartment blocks. Britain builds new houses on 'estates' and America places them in 'subdivisions'. In Britain, the story has been one of 'problems' followed by 'panaceas', as shown in [Fig 11.25]. Each of the panaceas was based on a limited design theory, concerned mainly with one petal. And each became a 'problem'. Warren Housing, reviled by Engles, was succeeded by Byelaw housing. Unwin and his friends attacked Byelaw Housing, arguing the case for Housing on Garden City Lines. Reformers from Clough Williams Ellis to Ian Nairn then slammed the sprawling uniformity of suburbia and sub-topia. Corbusian planners argued for the superficially attractive solution of stacking the dwellings and allowing the 'landscape' to flow underneath. Mixed Development was the next solution, to be followed by Design Guide Housing. A shocking feature of this progression is the fervour with which each group of reformers decried the work of its predecessors. When we look back, each of the panaceas has real merit and suits certain groups of the population. Warren housing, where it survives in olde worlde villages, is treasured. Garden suburbs have always been loved by residents. Stefan Muthesius, Oscar Newman, and many young couples, have sung the praises of the English terraced house. Others love the cell-like isolation and superb views from tower blocks. The most serious criticism of the theories which generated these schemes is that each has been too dominant, and has ruled exclusively in that dreaded ghetto: the housing estate.