ABSTRACT
The debate around the regeneration of social housing estates in London has become highly polarised. One the one hand, existing estates are considered places of little value that can be re-used to accommodate thousands more homes for the capital (Cameron 2016; Barnes et al. 2016). On the other, they should be cherished as embodying the social aspirations of their age, with estate regeneration facilitating gentrification or social cleansing (Hatherley 2011; Minton 2017). In the past, many estate regeneration projects have addressed problems of social order or control in their spaces, stigmatisation or a lack of popularity, whereas today’s projects are more likely to build additional homes for rent to address London’s acute housing shortage. So how does urban design practice (principles and processes) contribute towards social cohesion?
This chapter offers an account by Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design (Tibbalds), a well-established urban planning and design practice based in London with a long history of estate regeneration projects. We are a practice grounded in the spatial design of places with concern for the social experience of the user as well as for aesthetics.
