Housing, Developers and the Climate Crisis
- Nigel Wakeham
- 1 day ago
- 7 min read
I am an architect, semi-retired and I moved to Faversham about 5 years ago after having spent most of the last 50 plus years working in the Global South.
Housing did not form a major part of my work there but before going to southern Africa in 1970, I had worked for two firms of architects who had specialised in the design of housing and this together with my continuing interest in house design, has given me a basis, I think, on which to judge the type of developments that we are seeing going up around Faversham and other towns in the country. Note: this piece was originally written for the Faversham Society Newsletter.
I have been decidedly unimpressed by the abysmally low standard of design generally of the housing developments being constructed around the town and this view has been reinforced by my recently having become a member of the planning committee of the Faversham Society which is responsible for reviewing planning applications for housing and other developments around the town.
The planning applications for housing developments that we have been seeing are pretty terrible in that the house designs in all of the developments are generic with no real connection to the architecture of the town; there is usually little sense of ‘place’ within the developments, the layouts being dominated by roads, parking and hardstanding; there is no meaningful landscaping structure within the sites; the only public open spaces are usually located around the perimeter of the sites; little or no consideration has been to orientation of the dwellings and their exposure to the sun and there are overlooking and privacy issues both between houses and between houses and adjacent gardens.
To take the example of Duchy of Cornwall’s SE Faversham development, they appear to have tried to capture the randomness of a settlement such as Faversham through the use of traditional models seemingly without recognising that such settlements have taken centuries to develop. Trying to produce an imitation within a short period of time will inevitably result in an unconvincing pastiche of the real thing. There seems to be no good reason to do this as the site is not close to the town centre and therefore any housing does not have to ‘fit in’ to its surroundings. The development also suffers from most of the problems outlined in the previous paragraph.
Then there is the issue of the ‘detached’ house. Developers seem to think that the large, detached house in low-density estates is the optimum form of development even if the houses are only separated by a metre or less. These developments besides having most if not all of the problems outlined above, are extremely wasteful of land (and most of them are taking place on valuable agricultural land) and, as they are also taking place without any consideration being given to public transport links, they are adding greatly to the transport problems around the town and to greenhouse gas emissions from private cars.
That it could be done differently can be seen by examining some mid-20th century developments by architects such as Eric Lyons (around SE London and at New Ash Green), Phippen Randall and Parkes (in Harlow and Crawley) and Austin Vernon (in Dulwich). Most of these developments, for both social housing and middle-class private housing, utilised terraced housing at higher densities than are being seen around Faversham now. Although these developments are now 50 years old or more, most of them are still looking good due to their thoughtful design, good quality construction and to the landscaping of the sites. Although they are mainly terraced houses, they are still very desirable as can be seen from the high prices that they command. The developers operating around Faversham seem however, to be uninterested in or ignorant of any alternatives to what they are constructing now.
But enough of these aesthetic and planning considerations! There is now a much greater problem facing housing developments of any kind, even if developers seem to be in total denial about it and this is, of course climate change. Climate change is still being thought of in terms of incremental change but what we are seeing is the arrival of a completely different chapter in our climate history (illustrated by the extreme temperatures experienced over the Whitsun Bank Holiday weekend).
The government established the Climate Change Committee in 2008 to advise UK governments on reducing carbon emissions and adapting to the impact of climate change. The Committee’s recent report states that the UK can now be regarded as a hot country with heatwaves that are expected to exceed 40ºC by 2050. Periods of extreme heat are likely to become the ‘new normal’ and about nine in 10 of existing UK homes are likely to overheat leading to an additional 10,000 heat-related deaths or more a year. The UK’s present infrastructure is built for a climate that no longer exists and urgent changes are required if we are to survive global heating.
So how should this affect housing design given the fact that the houses being built today should, if properly built (which is questionable I know) last for 30, 40, 50 years or longer? We should obviously be designing and building houses now that will be able to cope with the rapidly changing climate and the expected increase in temperatures. Developers are however still building houses using 19th or 20th century models (or in the case of the Duchy, an 18th century model) that were designed to cope with a climate that has disappeared or is rapidly disappearing.
One solution would be to use air-conditioning but this is very energy-intensive and even now accounts for about 4% of global greenhouse emissions a figure that will undoubtably grow unless other solutions can be found. More efficient modern systems can use heat pumps but the use of air-conditioning however powered is likely to increase inequality between those who can afford it and those who cannot.
There are other ways to control the heat that depend upon the use of passive measures. When I lived in West Africa (where the annual temperature range was between 28ºC and 35ºC with high humidity levels and heavy rain), I built a house for our family that did not depend upon air-conditioning for comfort. It was designed on two-stories with the main living and sleeping accommodation on the first floor to catch the breeze. The house faced north-south to reduce the amount of sun penetration on the front and rear elevations and it had very large roof overhangs to keep the sun (and rain) off the walls and windows. The house had a wide frontage and was only one room deep so that all rooms could get the maximum cross-ventilation. The roofs were well insulated and the first floor ceilings were high to maximise volume. There was no air-conditioning in any of the rooms but the house was very comfortable and we lived there quite happily for 5 years.
I am not saying that this could be a model for housing in UK but the use of similar passive measures could be used to reduce internal temperatures and improve comfort levels. Heat pumps and solar panels will obviously play their part but the use of passive measures such as large roof overhangs to protect first floor windows and walls and projecting canopies or brise-soleils or other shading measures to project ground floor walls and windows from the summer sun (but allowing in the winter sun) would, if not obviate completely the need for cooling systems, at least reduce the load on any such system. Houses orientated to face north-south would reduce solar penetration and wide frontage house designs would allow for more cross-ventilation and lower temperatures within the houses. Heavily insulated roofs and triple-glazed windows would also reduce internal temperatures. Wide verandas would mediate between outside and inside and planting and landscaping around the houses and reductions in hard surfacing would also help.
The house that we bought when we moved to Faversham is a small, very narrow, terraced house that is 160 years old and required complete renovation. I did my best to make the house comfortable in hot (and cold) weather by insulating the roof and front and rear walls; installing double-glazed windows; opening up the ground floor so that there can be a breeze through the house (there are no internal doors on the ground floor), providing the rear extension with large openable windows on two walls to provide cross-ventilation and by constructing a pergola over the terrace outside the extension to protect the rear wall and windows from the sun in the afternoon.
There are some developments that give reason for hope such as the Phoenix development in Lewes and in some of the housing developments in and around Cambridge but they are few and far between and most do not go far enough in the use of passive methods to counteract high temperatures. It seems that the Duchy are considering selling off 20% of their land holdings and rumour has it that this might include their land outside of Faversham. If that happens then we might get a developer prepared to take more action on climate change with regard to the design and layout of the housing on this site. It is possible but I suppose it is fairly unlikely!
More details of New Ash Green, the work of Phippen, Randall and Parkes, my house in Freetown and my review of the Duchy’s SE Faversham development are provided in other sections of this website.
Architecture in Developing Countries: A Resource
The design and construction of appropriate, low-cost buildings for education and health in rural areas of the developing world.
Nigel Wakeham worked as an architect for 23 years in Southern and West Africa and the SW Pacific working on education, health and other projects. He has since worked for over 20 years as a consultant for national governments and agencies such as the World Bank, DFID, ADB and AfDB on the implementation of the construction components of education and health projects in many countries in the developing world.
The objective of this website will be to provide the benefit of more than 45 years of experience of working in developing countries to architects and other construction professionals involved in the design and construction of appropriate, low-cost buildings for education and health. It will provide reference material from the projects that Nigel has worked on and technical information on the design, construction and maintenance of educational and health facilities and other relevant topics and these will be added to from time to time.
I am happy to be contacted by anyone requiring further information on any of the projects or resources referred to in this website or by anyone wishing to discuss work possibilities.
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