Stephen Hill, The Politics of Placemaking

THE POLITICS OF PLACEMAKING Co-producing places for living well Academy of Urbanism Eindhoven June 21st 2019 Stephen Hill MRICS Churchill Fellow National CLT & UK Cohousing Networks @Community_Land

@ukcohousing @stephenhillFP

but by people

it’s fatal to draw…

‘Christopher Alexander is widely considered to occupy a place outside the discipline, the discourse, and the practice of architecture.’

Creating sociable and healthy places by design and co-production Inclusive…Safe…Resilient…and Sustainable

BIG

Placemaking‌ Lines for Living

Matching physical and social connections in the city

design how make the place

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

Phase 31

centres connections • Diversity • Early movement • Interim spaces in between new residents possibilities

Design Leadership does not equal control

sustainable guidance to a developer beautiful sounds like Rob Cowan - The Dictionary of Urbanism

352 pages

“It’s like Beirut…”

Germaine Greer in the Guardian, September 2009

2007 Housing Crash Area comes to a standstill Sale of site aborted

“…uniformly depressing” Another developer

“Let’s try self-build!”

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

BLUE !

every problem how we live”

“Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community”

Small Placemaking

Another unique rural setting????

Just an ordinary suburban extension • City Council owned • 2.31 acres • Planning for 36 homes

• • • • • • • • •

1000 homes Including 300 affordable Community Centre New Primary School New public spaces Sport facilities Commercial….limited Hotels Guided bus to city centre, stations, major employment areas

In the city‌ but not of it

Marmalade Lane

42 houses and flats Co-financed with enabling developer and investor on Cambridge Council land

Creating streets people really want to live on‌

…the product of most ‘normal’ masterplans

Q. Which bit of Orchard Park do you like the most?

A. The commercial centre…there’s some street life there.

Enabling Developer - Invitation to tender Evaluation by City Council and Cambridge Cohousing’s Procurement Working Group

Stage 1 Bid: 100% Quality

Stage 2 Bid: 60% Quality/40% Land Price • Land price offer with unit pricing • Detailed scheme proposals • Group members workshop event with shortlisted developers and planners

TOWN selected 12/14 - 6/15 ‌an imaginative and creative solution

Getting started

Nearly finished …always at Christmas!

How it’s made…

Settling in …all work and play…and work!

April 2019 Launch Day

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/may/08/ marmalade-lane-co-housing-cambridge

More like Cambridge‌.

exceptional very

modest input a careful and evolving response Ralph Erskine, Architect

What is cohousing about?

• Living collaboratively • Living more sustainably • Sharing space, time, skills and…stuff • Self-contained home • Combating loneliness • Respecting privacy • Autonomy

The Cohousing Principles • Healthy living • Co-creating a community of people and place • Resident control and stewardship • Shared and private facilities • Generous citizenship

…or just common sense?

Cohousing is flexible…and adaptive • New build, renovation of existing property, or set up in the street where you live • Various legal models • All forms of ownership and renting • Intergenerational, communities of interest or age specific eg. senior, LGBT • New groups, existing community based activity or developer-group/community partnership • Difficult to do, but great places to live.

2017 OWCH, New Ground, High Barnet

Mixed tenure social rent & leasehold flats

Mutual self care for over-55s

7 1 0 2 s rd a w ard A n w g i A s e d l D i r g u e n B n i s n i m u o W Ho Cust l l a r e Ov

Part Self-funded and developed with Hanover & Homes for Women Tudor Trust investment in social rent 4.5m hi BBC N ts on e Faceb ws ook

“When I came back with the news (breast cancer diagnosis), within 2 minutes 6 women were in my sitting room opening the brandy. There were offers from people to stay the night, a rota to take me to chemotherapy, a rota for bringing me soup – it was amazing!”

Cultural barriers Over my dead body human nature

worst aspects of

pre-occupation with what they want!

Housing association CEO, England Interviewee for ‘The Future of Community Self Build in England and Scotland’ (JRF 2000) Hill S

‘Wise’ ‘so difficult’:

Architect in Building magazine - technical feature on Cohousing for Older People

“Weirdy, they are not normal�

Ward Councillor (from the then Big Society Party) at Stroud District Council Planning Committee

What is the added value of working with ‘the community’?

Localism shifts some of the power to communities provided It will demand better tailored proposals and interventions

“…better tailored proposals and interventions” 27 – community led homes for social rent – not subject to Right to Buy 125 – year lease on the site 302 – units per hectare £9.7m – total funding from Southwark £0.3m – predevelopment costs from GLA 14 two-bed flats for downsizers needing a bed for a guest or family carer.

Knowing who the residents were beforehand was a critical part of the project’s success.

Bell Phillips Architects

Goodwill nurtured among those most directly affected can go a very long way towards writing a happy ending.

This is part of a proud history of building homes for ordinary Londoners.

My sister can’t believe I’ve got this place

look like

We made it …

So

? e Everybody who has been r e h involved in thiser yw v k e r collaborative approach a s i m h t h c g n n i e has benefitted from it. o b d e ? e h t t w n t i e t ’ I’ d like to see more n e m k e p r a o a l m e y examples of this across v h e w ayor… ew d the capital. n M l l r

M

a r fo

James Murray, Deputy Mayor

for Housing and Residential Development.

• Political reserve Springhill Stroud

Challenges for designers‌ not to design assumptions

through living intentional

a foundation designing

Co-producing Design and values

Construction management 7.5 acre 3 hectare site 190 homes – 65+ dwellings/ha [Typical Victorian street density]

Managed co-production by municipality and community groups

‘Secure by Design’

or Secure by Living Together?

Family Cohousing Passivhaus group

Barrier free living group

Lower income family group

High value detached and semidetached villas

High quality public spaces

Mid-market family group

Coop Mika

Self-refurbishment: Flats for families and single people

Community facilities

Workspace and local services

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

Messy living…

housing markets Tübingen Südstadt

mainstream politics

Normal

Project Vauban, Freiburg

Karlsruhe, Hamburg, Leipzig….

“design” ends “living” Identity • Intimacy • Loud quiet creativity of people • Long term responsibility for place and its people

looks like

Fitting ‘the place’ to ‘the people’ People learn from each other about their own creative powers Jane Jacobs The Economy of Cities

Ordinary people overcome everyday constraints on living, by adapting, improvising, transforming, and trial and error Nabeel Hamdi The Placemakers’ Guide to building communities

“

RIBA Ethics & Sustainable Development Commissions 2018

Place the SDG’s at the heart of everything we do …nothing less will do.

Peter Oborn, Chair RIBA Sustainability Commission

United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11

”

not Because..

• it’s all been done before • all development takes a long time…is difficult, risky etc …and • we can’t actually afford to go on building socially and environmentally unsustainable places

!

L O R

Building new markets

T N

Growing the Voice of the Demand Side

B G N I K A T

K C A

O C

Read more ‘PROPERTY, JUSTICE AND REASON’ http://stephenhillfutureplanning.blogspot.co.uk smdhill@gmail.com