New housing design plan for London

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has published a detailed design plan that sets the standards to which all new homes in the capital should aspire in future.

It's a comprehensive and well-argued document that seeks to learn lessons from housing mistakes in the past, as well as adapting for the changed climate London appears likely to esxperience in the future.

There are one or two points I can take issue with: the argument that there should be no more than eight properties accessed from any communal space is one such; and I suspect anyone wanting to take issue with developments like Tileman House could find plenty to bolster their arguments against it in here, but these are all technical quibbles in what is a thorough and wide-ranging guide.

We all have an interest in improving the design of our environment because design directly influences life chances, community safety, quality of life and how we interact with each other. If you like this sort of thing, you'll enjoy the design guide, which you can read here.