2 minute read

Two recent posts on the blog of the Idox Knowledge Exchange review how social housing retrofits can apply to all types of homes, at any scale.

I introduce the posts with a little digression, which of course is quite to the point.

While no industry expert by any standard, I have followed the topic closely, because of the implications of quality homes and neighbourhoods on nearly every aspect of personal and collective life. We’ve always known that we are what we eat. Likewise, a long line of urban designers, town planners, and thinkers, from Ebenezer Howard and Patrick Geddes to Hugh Barton and Matthew Carmona, have repeatedly shown how the quality of our built and natural environment shapes us with the same intensity as we shape our surroundings. Thinkers and spiritual teachers of the past also shared this truth. Going back into the tides of time, we may find ample evidence of great ingenuity and awareness for harmonious placemake, alongside fragments of nearly-forgotten civilisations. The traces of past civilisations provide simultaneously inspiring and ominous reminders of our collective agency in shaping life opportunities for future generations. Quality homes and neighbourhoods are a matter of life and death. So hurry slowly! For if we cannot cherish and share all the true wonders of life as a society, how can individuals face death with calm, dignity and a sense of fruitful legacy?

It pays to remember the ‘think global, act local‘ motto of the Agenda 21 that was born out of the Rio United Nations Earth Summit in 1992. Despite the passing of time, ‘a glocal’ approach is still not cliché, though the buzzwords may have changed somewhat. This timelessness of global awareness manifested through local involvement can still be found in place design best practice. When it comes to good design, all roads still metaphorically lead to Rome — though perhaps not to gladiator-gore entertainment drama at the Colosseum because, honestly, how uncivilised was that?

So, without further adue:

• the first post, published on May 22nd, takes stock of retrofits of social housing retrofits, from listed tenements and high rises in Glasgow to low-rise in Manchester and cooperative housing in London

• the second post, published on May 24th, reviews a selection of area-wide and estate-wide retrofits, from the deep transformation of Lancaster West Estate in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, to programmes of thousands of home retrofits in Renfrewshire, Scotland, and across a partnership of 14 housing associations in Brittany, France.

For the record, a detailed account of the acclaimed Niddrie Road tenements retrofits in Glasglow can be found here, written by Glasgow University Professor Kenneth Gibb (2022). This short but detailed description by John Gilbert Architects also provides an overview of the collaborative project.

Lest we should forget to learn from each other, let’s keep learning by examplars, as well as less successful examples, for it takes every step to lead from experience.