Comment

Creating Space for Beauty

The interim report of the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission was published on 9 July [1].

It sets out the initial findings and recommendations of the commission, which was tasked with establishing how the planning, design and development process could be improved to produce better and more beautiful new development.

The basic starting point for the commission was that there is widespread public opposition to new development, and this is holding back progress with solving the nation’s housing crisis, but that this could be removed (or at least reduced) if new development was more ‘beautiful’. When the commission was launched many feared that it would be very conservative in its approach, supporting a pastiche style of development and stifling innovation and contemporary design. However, the interim report suggests that this is not the case.  Certainly some of the recommendations are quite conservative, but others are ambitious and, if implemented (and this is a big ‘if’), could lead to big changes in the design and development process for new housing schemes and in the way we evaluate them.

The report is important because it goes beyond the number crunching of annual housing delivery rates and considers the value of creating new developments which positively enhance local communities. This change of emphasis from the quantity to the quality of development is welcome and a positive change.

However, the call that new development should be ‘beautiful’ is a high bar. The interim report does not make much progress in defining what beauty is, or should be, nor who should be the judge of it. It also needs to be more supportive of the volume house builders and how they can be involved in this renaissance. After all, they will undoubtedly continue to be responsible for the delivery of the large majority of new homes in the UK, despite the commission’s aspiration for smaller scale approaches to development. Similarly, more thought needs to be given to how judgements can be made at the planning application stage on the future beauty of a development (for example, how can we judge the potential beauty of a scheme from an outline planning application?).

The commission has set itself a near impossible task to be completed by the end of this year. However, the interim report is an interesting read and if it results in greater awareness and debate about the quality of development then this, in itself, is a positive result.  

We believe that good design is central to good growth and our planning and design services support the shaping of better places through high quality, deliverable design. For further details on our Landscape and Townscape services please contact Joanna Ede and for more information about our Design services please get in touch with Stephen Taylor.

14 August 2019

[1] Creating space for beauty: interim report of the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission