In reply to J Glendinning:
Thats a really good point - kind often the drawings that we make show an idealised environment with happy people and thriving landscaping, and yes, the maintenance of that public realm is critical. Firstly it helps if it’s well designed, and secondly things work best when the community takes ownership (either literally or figuratively) of those spaces.
The back-catalogue of failed attempts is relatively high, but I think as a country we are getting better at making affordable housing.
In terms of successful examples - I think the BedZed scheme by Bill Dunster is very good, particularly in terms of its environmental credentials. The recent Accordia scheme in Cambridge looks great. My old firm did a scheme in Inverness, called Raining’s Stairs on a derelict city centre site and we know it’s had a positive impact. The Peabody Housing Association tend to commission good work across the SE.
The challenge, or at least one of the challenges, is trying to retain that quality when the developer / h assoc etc start to review costs and make cuts - often the shared external spaces are the first to suffer.