Delivering design value: the housing design quality conundrum

Creating well-designed homes and neighbourhoods is a shared ambition of the four UK governments, but is rarely achieved in practice. The aim of this report was to understand why design quality is so often undervalued and how design-sensitive planning and development might be encouraged in the future. Sponsored by the RTPI and the four UK governments, the report examines the process of planning, designing and developing new homes and neighbourhoods using data collected from across the UK. It finds that the design quality of new homes and neighbourhoods is stubbornly low and that the responsibility for delivering design value is shared by the public and private sector. The report includes a large format downloadable diagram that identifies the ‘critical points of intervention’ for delivering design value in the planning and development process. Its principal recommendation is that the four UK governments should adopt ‘design value standards’ that place neighbourhood urban form principles in regulation and embed the economic, social and environmental value of design at the heart of planning and housebuilding.

Authors: James T. White, Tom Kenny, Flora Samuel, Chris Foye, Gareth James and Bilge Serin

Downloads:

Main report Critical points of intervention – diagram