Patterning the Dutch Compact City

In: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-65314

Abstract

A major challenge to town planners in Britain is to help fulfil current and future housing need in a sustainable manner and avoid excessive development land take. This thesis therefore establishes what future development models are currently under debate and undertakes extensive research into Governments preferred option the 'Compact City'. Research focuses on empirical data for sustainable development and arguments for/against a policy of urban intensification. On conclusion that research alone fails to provide a sufficient basis for promoting a policy of 'Compact Cities', research emphasis was placed on the Dutch planning system, which has promoted such a policy for over a quarter of a century. Dutch experience was used to answer many unresolved arguments surrounding the 'Compact City' and an investigation was undertaken into how the Dutch have made this policy successful. In light of the fact that Dutch experience has shown that high quality urban housing is fundamental to attracting residents back to cities, an investigation of current UK generic housing models was undertaken and these were tested against sustainable density research and UK/Dutch design advice. On comparison it was established that many failed both tests and it was established that additional housing types could be required under a policy of 'Compact Cities'. An alternative development brief for additional housing models was therefore developed and this brief was investigated through the design of three alternative housing types. In final conclusion it was proposed that the Dutch treatment of density could provide a model for future planning in England and their design principles could aid the creation of alternative urban housing types.