The concept of design champions will be put forward in a policy document, Better Public Housing, which the corporation will publish next month. The document, part of a series in the Cabinet Office's Better Public Building Initiative, will set out the principles of good design and provide good practice examples.
Clive Turner, Housing Corporation director of investment (south) and its overall design champion, said: "We would like to see every major developing association nominate a champion at board and senior management level. It is possible that [in about 18 months] we will require such appointments as a condition of entering into long-term development agreements."
Publication of the design policy document will be followed, at the end of this year, by the introduction of a network of design champions who will each be expected to attend seminars on good design. Turner said: "Champions will not have to be experts on design, they just need to be responsible for making sure that there is a design input in schemes, rather than time and cost being the only considerations."
The corporation's document comes after an unpublished report on the barriers to design, which found that good design tends to be an "accident rather than a natural outcome" of the development process.
Commissioned by the Housing Corporation from Andrew Chamen, former development director of Sovereign Housing Association, the report found that the right combination of "culture and control" was necessary if improvements were to be achieved.
The study includes interviews with a cross-section of anonymous individuals involved with social housing development in the South-west, from registered social landlords to local authorities, architects and developers.
The corporation is also expected to review its internal funding framework to find out whether it acts as a barrier to good design.
Source
Housing Today
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