Allford Hall Monaghan Morris’ Post

Birmingham City Council rejected plans for a 42-story residential tower above a Grade II-listed building. While some councillors called the proposal "bonkers" the developers see it as a potential way to revitalise an unused site. This situation raises interesting questions about balancing modern development with preserving historic character in our cities. Can modern high-rise development coexist with historic buildings? Are there successful examples of such projects? https://lnkd.in/eCk-cRCp

It was good to be one of 1,000 people who spent their Friday night listening to architects talk about housing at the Barbican Centre last week – even though the UK's chronic lack of good homes is a downer, it’s got to be positive that so many people are interested in how to do something about it. There was a lot of agreement that we need to find ways to decouple housing from speculation – so seeing homes as places to live rather than investment vehicles, and as part of the country’s infrastructure, which shapes how we live together as citizens, rather than a consumer product. I particularly enjoyed hearing from Mellis Haward from Archio Ltd (who has built great Community Land Trust housing at Citizens’ House), who gave a nuts and bolts talk about how we need better retrofit programmes. Astrid Smitham from APPARATA atchitects (who designed A House For Artists, affordable housing for creative people in Barking) talked about how new buildings need better circulation spaces – the corridors need to be less dark and narrow, and more likely to encourage people to stop and talk to each other and feel that they belong in their building. And Osama Shoush from Southwark Council talked about the challenges Southwark is overcoming to build new council homes - particularly the fact that the combination of future rental income and central government grant doesn’t cover the costs. But my favourite talk was from Russell Curtis, from RCKa, who showed us that there are 95 golf courses within greater London, which collectively take up as much space as the whole of LB Brent, of which around half are owned by local authorities, and those local authority owned ones take up the same space as LB Hammersmith and Fulham.  Just by building on those golf courses, you could create 120,000 new homes, which would be a quarter of all the new homes London needs in the next 10 years. AND you could increase biodiversity at the same time, since golf courses look green but are actually very bad for plants and animals as the grass is so heavily managed. In fact, you could build most of those houses and leave nine holes on each golf course, so people could still play a full game of golf by going out and back. And there are another 75 golf courses within 5km of London, and 300 within 25km of London, so people could still get their golf in (or we could build even more homes on those ones…).

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Really? Come on Birmingham City Council you can do better than that. We are in the middle of a Climate & Ecological Emergency. If you don't understand the huge positive impact reusing buildings has on the environment don't just carry on like it's 1924, make the effort to become climate literate now. We need #climateactionnow

It is good news that the wrong kind of investment and development from Weston Homes stepped away last week from delivering a car dependant, retail heavy scheme which would have reinforced breaks in the city's grain. Norwich city centre was cut up with a ring road and gyratory in the 1960's when that was fashionable. Now we all want walkable cities, we need to re-stitch and re-absorb acres of car parking and disjointed buildings back into the city’s grain. There is luckily a recipe for that in the old street patterns…a ready-made tried and tested set of streets just waiting to be unearthed. This is a moment of systemic change. Land assembly was a useful development tactic when you wanted to build large shopping centres and apartment complexes. Now we want neighbourhoods and walking cities we need to take the opposite approach. ‘Parcellisation’, encourages many diverse developers, businesses, housing providers and small collectives who all can contribute to making the city walkable and intriguing. #reconnectingcities #futurenorwich #walkablecities #neighbourhoods

As the need for housing grows, cities continue to look for ways to reduce the shortage. Great time for investors! Let’s connect and discuss the future! #boylstonst #realestate #realestatenews #housingcrisis #housinginventory #oumasellsrealestate

Last year, the Planning and Environment Committee (PEC) pledged 47,000 new residential units by 2031 within London, but this has raised questions about where these new units will be built. Steve Lehman, Chair of the PEC, has said they'll hopefully be built along transit routes, especially considering the newly underway Wellington Gateway, and the PEC has approved several infill projects, on the basis that "Three to four storeys is not a radical departure in changing the character [of a neighbourhood],” What do you think? Are infill and refit projects the answer the the complexities around continuous new-builds and built-for-purpose properties? #construction #residential #builtenvironment

Forth Ports submits proposals for next phase of Harbour 31 as part of Leith regeneration Forth Ports Limited is moving forward with phase two of Harbour 31, known as The Dry Dock at Harbour 31, a new creative and commercial hub on land to the east of Edinburgh Dock within the Port of Leith. The Proposal of Application (PAN) submitted to The City of Edinburgh Council is the next phase of the wider Harbour 31 development plans for the area and follows on from the Planning Permission in Principle (PPP) submitted in March this year for 337 new homes and approximately 244sqm of commercial space. This PAN identifies specific opportunities including business, general industrial use, storage and distribution, training/education facilities, with retail, food and drink uses on a site situated to the east of Edinburgh Dock at the Port of Leith; integrating land at the port into the wider community in and around Leith. https://lnkd.in/ec-U3QYm #ports #regeneration #maritimeconnection #ISeaSMEs #socsea24

This week in the DM South Area, Deputy Mayor Jules Pipe decided that the Mayor of London will become the local planning authority in order to determine redevelopment Phase 2b at the Springfield Hospital site in Tooting. The subject application for this phase comprises 449 homes (50% affordable), representing a significant uplift over the 89 homes (16% affordable) previously consented for this part of the masterplan. Further to Zeb McInnes’s recommendation for the GLA, the Deputy Mayor’s decision to intervene follows an earlier Wandsworth Council resolution to refuse planning permission, against the recommendation of Council officers in March. Despite being previously developed land, this is a sensitive site - not least due to Metropolitan Open Land and nearby heritage designations. Whilst the 2012 masterplan envisaged a series of townhouses across three plots, the Farrells re-design for optimisation of this phase promotes an alternative compact and higher-density built form. With potential to offer enhanced open space provision as well as additional housing and affordable housing, this is certainly an interesting case which warrants a closer look and careful consideration at public Representation Hearing. The Deputy Mayor’s reasons for intervening are published here: https://lnkd.in/dqQGiD4R Information on the public Representation Hearing process is available here: https://lnkd.in/dDqhDcSn Image credit: Farrells (Massing model). 

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