Comment Why is this fine design lost on those who should know better?
Here in Birmingham, in Highgate, there are some good modern back-to-back houses built in the 1980s.
At the planning committee, houses were inaccurately described as having “no gardens whatsoever”, and the shared gardens were described as “courtyards”, likening them to the brick-paved courts of 19th century back-to-back houses in Birmingham.
In fact the three shared gardens at Port Loop, which are surrounded by private back gardens connecting to them, are generous spaces measuring 45 x 14 metres.
They will be pleasant and safe places for children to play, and for neighbours to meet and socialise.
In addition there are two larger public green spaces overlooked by houses, the Green and the Park, which go down to the bank of the canal.
One councillor criticised the scheme for looking like it was designed to win housing awards.
This is a peculiar form of abuse. Housing awards, such as those awarded annually by the National House Building Council, reward good places to live which are intelligently designed. It is what Birmingham ought to be aspiring to, not dismissing.
The same councillor complained: “Why can’t we build ordinary houses?”
I am puzzled by what he understands to be ordinary.
I suspect he means the kind of substandard low density suburban housing, encouraging the use of the motor car, which is regularly churned out by mass housebuilders, and which rightly wins no awards.
In fact the Port Loop houses are eminently ordinary, in the best sense of the word.
They draw on the best traditions of urban housing, established over the last few hundred years. They are varied in their location and plan, offering a number of choices. The have a front door on to a street, and a back garden. They are welldesigned, efficient and compact in their planning. As well as private outdoor spaces, they have communal spaces to share, encouraging neighbourliness.
It is dismaying that Birmingham’s planning committee includes members who cannot read plans, and cannot recognise good quality design when it is put before them.
This scheme was approved by the skin of its teeth.
But if Birmingham has aspirations to be a great city to live in, something needs to change. Joe Holyoak is a Birminghambased architect and
urban designer
One councillor criticised it for looking like it was designed to win housing awards. This is a peculiar form of abuse. It’s what we ought to be aspiring to, not dismissing