ABSTRACT

A key focus of housing and planning policy this century has been on the provision of living environments in which ordinary people could dwell in comfort. In mid-century, planners gave a lot of attention to the design of residential neighbourhoods and to how these fitted into the overall patterning and functioning of towns and cities. By the 1960s, the policy emphasis in many countries had narrowed down to the mass production of low-cost housing. How people lived their lives receded to the background of policy attention in favour of their assumed need for a dwelling with particular ‘modern’ attributes. Relations with the city were also largely neglected. The adverse consequences of this narrowing are still with us. As economic growth weakened, the emphasis in spatial planning policy shifted, in turn, from housing provision to concerns with economic development and environmental sustainability. Despite recent interest in the design and management of sustainable living environments, the quality of the living environment, the place around the home, has been largely neglected in spatial planning in recent years and left to those concerned with urban design.