Builders told to improve design

Exclusive by David Nunn



The Government's architectural champion has accused housebuilders of creating a "national blot on the landscape" with second-rate homes and is calling on them to drop "national house-type" designs in an effort to improve matters.

The outburst has come from Stuart Lipton, the former Broadgate developer and head of Stanhope, who is chairman of the Commission for Architecture in the Built Environment, the body formed last September to overhaul the quality of the nation's architecture.

CABE, which has the backing of Tony Blair, will meet with the House Builders Federation at the end of next month to discuss the slowness of developers improving the design of their houses.

Lipton said: "The blot on the nation in this country comes from housebuilders. The architectural standards in housing have to be the lowest of any sector. Office building in general has improved but housing hasn't changed."

"Private housebuilders don't appear to be showing a lot of signs of interest at the moment. In housing, all the good work seems to be being done by the housing associations."

He said at the meeting with the HBF, CABE would be pushing for:

l A commitment to using architects.

l More innovation and contextual design.

l A general 'desire to move away from these blots on the landscape'.

Specifically, he wants to see an end to standard designs being used nation-wide: "We want to see housebuilders using skilled architects to produce innovative work. You build contextually. You build in sympathy with the environment. There cannot be a national house type."

Lipton's comments have been challenged by the chief executive of Architects in Housing, David Birkbeck.

Birkbeck said that volume housebuilders were well aware of design issues, but were forced to create homes that "are designed to be as inoffensive as possible to the local authority planning department".

He said the danger of having a go at housebuilders is that it will force them into a form a defensive circle. "They will then resist change."

The HBF's head of external affairs, Julian Smith, criticised Lipton's "quite sweeping statements about our members". He added: "We want a constructive dialogue with organisations like CABE. The rhetoric gets a bit overblown sometimes. We also need some good practical examples of what it is are referring to. This is a subjective area. Designs that don't make Stuart Lipton's wheels spin may be perfectly acceptable to other people."