EcoBuild this year was once again an impressive gathering. Neil Murphy was there to participate in a session on involving residents in housing developments.

The government’s bonfire of commitments to greener buildings may have taken some of the wind out of the eco-tech sails. But in its place at Ecobuild 2016 was a renewed interest in the social aspects of sustainable development. There was focus in particular on widening access to good quality, properly affordable housing against the backdrop of a massive housing crisis.

At the invitation of Stephen Hill of C20 Futureplanners, I joined a seminar titled “Bottom-up meets top-down: planning and placemaking for business and social benefit”. I was there to talk about our experience at K1 Cambridge Cohousing.

The focus of the session was on involving prospective residents and the existing community in planning and designing new housing. This can reduce opposition and increase support not just for new housing generally but for more sustainable and successful forms and types of development.

We heard experience from Tower Hamlets, where involvement of a neighbourhood plan group in planning for an opportunity site has led to local support for development at greater densities than the council had envisaged.  We discussed TOWN’s experience at K1, where Cambridge Cohousing membershave been fully involved in the development process. This has led to a design that will deliver both higher density and and better quality of housing. It will also provide shared open space and public realm, making for a good living environment and a development which benefits its neighbours.

Intelligent dialogue between developers, residents and the wider community was seen as the key. The main question is whether often under-resourced and over-committed planning authorities can be sufficiently engaged and flexible to manage the challenges to conventional planning wisdom that sometimes emerge.

Neil Murphy