Sustainable Housing: Principles & Practice
Edited by Brian Edwards and David Turrent
Taylor & Francis Books
£30


Sustainable is used here as much in the sense of self-sustaining communities as of green technologies. Brian Edwards, professor of architecture at Huddersfield University, defines sustainable housing as "housing that meets the perceived and real needs of the present in a resource-efficient fashion while providing attractive, safe and ecologically rich neighbourhoods." As well as including the efficient use of resources, he stresses the creation of durable, quality assets that will be valued by future generations.

Based on a RIBA conference on the same theme in 1998, the book collates the principles of all the various strands of sustainability, from hard conservation of physical resources and land to softer issues such as equity between generations, people and classes, with back-up statistics from the Building Research Establishment. Although the case studies are a weak point, the book should serve as a useful primer for housing development in the era after the eagerly awaited urban white paper.