We don't just design buildings, we set standards, shape opinion and contribute to books and papers, guidelines and reports. Our work has been in press and it's helped influence government thinking. Our efforts are directed towards making policy more practical and effective, campaigning for quality and fairness, finding creative ways to solve specific problems, and reflecting on lessons learned from 50 years in practice.
The Housing Design Handbook: A guide to good practice (second edition)
Everyone deserves a decent and affordable home, a truth (almost) universally acknowledged. But housing in the UK has been in a state of crisis for decades, with too few homes... Read more
Age-friendly Housing: Future design for older people
The latest addition to the RIBA’s ‘Future’ series, this book can also be seen as the sequel to the original HAPPI report because that too, focused on the role of... Read more
Making More of the Green Belt
In collaboration with LSE, we have recently published a report exploring the opportunities afforded by a strategic review of the green belt. With a particular focus on the potential of... Read more
Thinking Ahead
Local Authority estates have been a vital part of the UK’s housing provision for over 50 years, and although many face social, economic, placemaking and physical stock issues, the advantages... Read more
Resident training
Our post-occupancy research has highlighted that residents benefit from training when moving into new homes – especially where complex building services are installed in addition to passive design measures. We offer... Read more
Offsite: design meets manufacture
We are passionate about the opportunities presented by offsite, particularly in the production of our future homes. Occupying the intersection of architecture and industry, the technology has real potential to... Read more
One Hundred Years of Housing Space Standards: What now?
Part history, part insight and part opinion, this is perhaps the most detailed and contextual analysis of housing space standards that exists, and certainly the most current. Written by Julia... Read more
Julia Park: BD’s housing columnist
The best thing about writing a column for BD is the added incentive to stay up to date and make time to think about what’s going on. In such busy... Read more
Altered Estates
London’s failure to keep up with the demand for additional homes has renewed interest in regenerating existing housing estates – to not only increase the quantity of homes but also... Read more
Why Manchester’s new design guidance is something to be celebrated
From our window in the soon-to-be St. John’s Quarter, we can see a skyline peppered with cranes at work on numerous sites across Manchester. Our informal ‘crane survey’ tallies with... Read more
NHF Housing Standards Handbook
The National Housing Federation describes itself as the voice of affordable housing in England and part of its role has always been to promote good design and champion standards. Housing is... Read more
New Council Housing in Enfield
It’s been almost fifty years since we last saw large-scale ‘council-built housing’. From the 70’s this role effectively passed to housing associations, but following changes to borrowing restrictions, many local... Read more