6: Housing
This Sustainability Issue addressed the changing residential culture within UK
city centres during the last 150 years. Specifically, VivaCity2020 researched the relationship between the design of the public realm of
residential areas and the occurrence of antisocial behaviour, to see if
certain types of activity – vandalism, littering, graffiti, loitering,
drug dealing, prostitution and suchlike – take place in locations with
specific spatial characteristics that can then be designed out of
housing areas in order to make them less vulnerable to abuse.
Case Studies
Thirty residential areas were selected from three major city centres, London (Clerkenwell), Manchester (Hulme) and Sheffield (Devonshire Quarter), to serve as case studies of the various types of housing that have been built in the UK between the 1820s and the present day. The starting point was to understand these case studies as examples of different housing typologies, by considering the architectural elements and morphological arrangements that are characteristic of each example. This led to an investigation of the ways in which built form and housing layout might contribute to the creation of sustainable housing environments and a safe and attractive public realm that support thriving local communities.
Methods
The approach has been to combine conventional analytical measures
used by architects and town planners, such as building density, housing
density, land use characteristics and road hierarchy with the more
specialised tools of ‘space syntax’ to examine the patterns of open
space that are found in residential areas from different historical
periods. 
These modes of analysis have been supplemented by detailed
photographic surveys of the housing and open spaces within each
residential development, to record the condition of the properties and
any evidence of antisocial behaviour. An attitudinal postal survey was
also distributed to all the residents in each housing development, to
obtain their views about the ‘liveability’ of their home and its
immediate local environment.
Findings
Patterns of open space and building layout have been identified that are associated with antisocial practices, as well as some that do not appear to suffer abuse in this way but rather contribute to community wellbeing. The findings have highlighted the emergence of a ‘developer’s’ model of a mixed-use urban block as a new residential typology which, along with a twenty-first century model of streets and squares, has come to represent a culturally specific response to the perceived need to reintroduce housing into the inner city.
Tools
Case StudiesThirty residential areas have been selected from three major city centres, London (Clerkenwell), Manchester (Hulme) and Sheffield (Devonshire Quarter), to serve as case studies of the various types of housing that have been built in the UK between the 1820s and the present day.
A questionnaire-based postal survey, based on the British government's 'liveability agenda' that has been developed in recent years to capture the residential satisfaction of an area (ODPM, 2003), was distributed to all the households living in twenty-nine out of the thirty housing developments in the sample. It comprised twenty-four questions, divided into four themes: upkeep and management of public space and buildings, road traffic and transport-related issues, abandonment or non-residential use of domestic property and antisocial behaviour.
Quantitative data were gathered for all thirty schemes, including the figure/ground ratio of the buildings and open spaces, the extent and type of non-residential uses, the public or private designation of any open spaces, the local street hierarchy and the type, height, transparency and permeability of the building facades and secondary boundaries such as walls, hedges or railings.
