Presentation by Caroline Fraser, CABE from the Building for Life Assessor Network Meeting, Magna , Rotherham, 13.10.10

1. Building for Life
Assessor Network meeting
Rotherham
Caroline Fraser
13 October 2010

2. Introduction
 CABE support for local authorities and local
communities to decide how their villages, towns and
cities develop:
 Getting local and neighbourhood plans right
 Ensuring people get the quality they deserve through
planning
 Helping communities to become great clients and owners of
assets

3. Enabling clients to do the best they can
ENABLER BEST PRACTICE
GUIDANCE
ENGAGEMENT (CASE STUDIES)
ENABLING
TEAM
REPORTING &
FEEDBACK NETWORKS TRAINING /
& WEB CAPACITY BUILDING
RESOURCES

4. Building for Life work
– Making BfL assessments available on website so
assessors can view best practice worked examples
– Gathering assessor and other user feedback to
contribute to review of criteria guidance
– Exploring methods of use as tool to engage with
communities and discuss opportunities and expectations
for future development
– Exploring opportunities to train other partners, such as
Planning Aid

5. Local level: working with community at Blackwall
Reach to give them a say in the quality of schemes
 Council and HCA wanted independent
support to involve community in design
decisions for complex estate renewal
project
 Aim: to embed principles of good design
so community could be engaged in
reviewing design quality of developers’
schemes
 CABE ran BfL workshop, site visits and
training for community representatives
 Community reps will be helped to assess
schemes using BfL

6. Sub-regional level: understanding rural needs
Carlisle rural strategy
 Supporting very limited resources in
council to understand where new housing
could be built across 23 settlements
 CABE working with council to develop
method for gathering local qualitative and
anecdotal information to inform rural
strategies
 Drawing in local intelligence from Parish
Councils
 Exploring use of BfL as tool to engage
communities where local sensitivities or
Parishes in Carlisle
resistance to development

8. Highgate, Durham
Bryant Homes / RPS Architects
34 three and four bed three-storey town houses
26 two and three bed apartments for private sale
1.227ha, 49 dwellings per hectare
Unit size : from 73.7sq.m (two bed flat) to 192sq.m (five bed house); average 124sq.m
Cost per unit: ranges from £165k - £500k

9. Butts Green, Kingswood, Warrington
EP & Bellway
BfL Award 2005
Creates a high quality green space at the heart of the scheme
A key space to share creates a strong sense of identity and
community
Clever positioning and massing of buildings shields development
from adjacent M 62

10. Cala Domus, Harlow
PCKO Architects

11. Adelaide Wharf, London
First Base / Alford Hall Monaghan Morris
147 flats (73 market/ 74 affordable)
0.43 hectares. 342 dwellings per hectare
Unit size: from 44 sqm (one bed) – 140sqm (four bed)
Unit cost : from £250k to £395k

12. Park Central, Birmingham
Crest Nicholson / Optima / Gardner Stewart Architects
1596 flats, 77 houses (market) / 78 flats, 147 houses (affordable)
12.25 ha, 155 dwellings per hectare
Unit Size: from 61.6sqm (two-bed) to 86.7sqm (three-bed)

13. Angell Town Estate, Brixton, London
Lambeth Housing
Burrell Fischer Foley / Greenhill Jenner / Anne Thorne Architects
Unit Cost: from £152k (two-bed) to £265k (four-bed)
632 houses and flats (370 new and 262 refurbished)
9.3ha, 68 units per hectare
Unit size: 52m2 (one-bed) to large 145m2(5-bed)

14. Great Bow Yard, Langport, Somerset
Ecos Homes
Stride Treglown Architects
12 private homes (8 townhouses, 4 flats)
Two 4-bed houses, six 3-bed houses, two 2-bed flats, two 1-bed flats
0.34 hectare, 41 dwellings per hectare
Unit cost: £140k (1-bed). £155k (2-bed) £250k (3-bed) £290k (4-bed)

15. Gun Wharf, Devonport, Devon
Devon and Cornwall HA / Midas Homes
Lacey and Hickey Architects
99 homes ( 35 market/ 64 Affordable)
2.3 hectares, 43 units per hectare
Unit Cost: £110k - £157k (Oct 2004)

16. Angel Waterside, London
Pollard Thomas Edwards

17. Granville New Homes, London
London Borough of Brent
Levitt Bernstein Architects

18. Accordia, Cambridge
Countryside Properties
Maccreanor Lavington / Feilden Clegg Bradley / Alison Brookes Architects
166 flats and 212 houses
9.5 Ha, 40 units per hectare
Unit size: from 50 sqm (1 bed apartment) to 360sqm (5 bed house)
Unit cost: from £200k to £1.1m

25. Thank you
www.cabe.org.uk