ABSTRACT
Housing delivery is near the top of today's political agenda. There is a crisis of increasing homelessness, falling rates of home ownership arid of affordability of both homes for rental and for purchase. The often-cited solution to address these multiple crises is to build more homes, faster. In many places, the response to housing demand has been the growth of low-density housing estates around the edges of historic centres. Served by new roads and bypasses, mono-functional urban extensions characterised by standardised homes turn their backs on existing settlements and have limited response to context. The role of the architect should be to interpret historic patterns to inform contemporary design solutions that evolve local traditions while responding to the needs of twenty-first-century living. Access and parking are carefully considered and located so as not to dominate the central green space.
