Hampshire Design Training

Snug Projects director Paul Bulkeley produced and delivered a new course on High Density High Quality Housing on behalf of the Solent Centre for Architecture & Design. The one day course was delivered to Planning Officers from Local Authority's across Hampshire. The course explored approaches to the design and delivery of high density housing and gave planning officers the opportunity to engage in a hands on design charette that applied best practice to delivering higher density developments in both urban and rural locations. One of the new ideas discussed was the relationship between horizontal and vertical coalescing and the need for a holistic neighbourhood wide approach to identifying appropriate opportunities for increased densities. The session concluded that higher housing densities where an essential component of sustainable and economically vibrant communities and that design quality and a contextual approach to establishing appropriate densities was central to creating enjoyable places in which to live, work and play. The Localism agenda and the creation of Neighbourhood Plans represents a significant opportunity to engage local communities in developing a more positive understanding of the merits of higher density with the debate needing to focus on quality as well as quantity. Snug Projects are active in promoting a more sustainable approach to housing design and continue to promote a creative appraoch to housing delivery.