I can't believe it's social housing!

It's hard to put your finger on exactly what makes the development, High Cross Road, designed by architect Walter Menteth, so successful. Indeed, the problem of defining what makes a design "good" is why the issue of design quality indicators is so hotly debated in architectural circles: ask a number of architects what makes good design and you will get as many different answers.

Of course, there are some basic principles to the creation of well-designed housing, and government design watchdog the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment has produced a helpful checklist. It includes function, building quality, sustainability and aesthetics and was sent to every registered social landlord in the country in a newsletter jointly produced with the Housing Corporation. This is just part of the two organisations' efforts to foster good design. Another is a programme of 10 demonstration projects in which the corporation is funding "enablers", mostly architects, to work with housing associations to encourage braver approaches to design.

Next month the corporation will publish a paper, Better Public Housing, which is expected to recommend that housing associations nominate their own permanent design champions at board and senior management level. Clive Turner, the Housing Corporation's director of investment and regeneration (south), says that it is "likely that we will require such appointments in the future as a condition of entering into development agreements".

The real barrier to better-designed social housing, says Turner, is a culture within RSLs that makes time and cost the priorities, rather than design quality. In-house design champions would make sure design quality was on the agenda from the moment a new scheme was talked about.

Architect Jim Monahan says the design of social housing will only improve when development officers stop thinking about "units" and start thinking of "homes". Next week his firm, Monahan Blythen Architects, and Ealing Family Housing Association hope to get planning permission for a striking scheme of houses and flats on a prominent site in west London. The building is distinguished by its sky gardens and 67% of the footprint of the building is amenity space, of which 78% is landscaped.

For Ealing Family this is an important scheme, and the first time it has commissioned a landmark building. The conflicting priorities of the local authority (see case study, page 28) meant the design process was fraught with difficulty, but the end result is a unique and highly site-specific design. Monahan says: "Good architecture comes when you get completely conflicting policies and you have to resolve them and still maintain the integrity of the design."

Pushing the boundaries
Working with contemporary architects like Monahan Blythen and Walter Menteth demands more from everyone involved in the development and construction process. The client and contractor's natural instinct is to use the cheapest, most tried-and-tested materials, whereas a good architect will argue for something new in the interests of design and long-term performance.

After 10 years of working with Menteth on innovative housing schemes, Ujima development director Sue Belk has grown used to the enthusiasm of architects for pushing the boundaries. "We're open to new materials and we're interested in exploring the detail of buildings," she says. The difficulty is that most contractors are not as advanced as they need to be to work with new materials such as the render and advanced energy-efficient windows used at High Cross Road. In the hope of achieving cost certainty, Ujima used a design-and-build contract, which Belk now admits was a mistake. "I would be unhappy to go down that route again," she says. "We needed the on-site supervision of an architect."

The limitations of design-and-build procurement have been identified as another barrier to good design in a research document commissioned by the Housing Corporation (see news report, page 13). The report says that problems arise with cutting costs late in a scheme, often by "vertical slicing" of components which "frequently has a devastating effect on design". David Birkbeck, chief executive of architects' group Design for Homes (see "Where to find help", page 28), believes it is a miracle that good design gets through at all in projects procured through design-and-build. "Housing associations have to get away from having their schemes re-engineered by contractors," he says. "It's more than a case of detailing; some of the schemes are almost unrecognisable after the process."

Birkbeck points to an award-winning scheme in the suburbs of Manchester as an example of a traditional contract producing an inspirational building, on time and within budget. The site of an old petrol station was the unlikely spot for an architectural competition run by Irwell Valley Housing Association and won by Manchester-based architect Stephenson Bell. With the surrounding area offering little in the way of design, the planners and housing association agreed that a distinctive landmark was required. The maximum use of natural light and ventilation, in order to reduce residents' heating bills, was a key feature of the brief.

Architect Roger Stephenson says the idea that design-and-build gives cost certainty is a myth: "All it does is give the contractor plenty of excuses to cut the specification, which can make a huge difference to the quality of materials and construction."

Chorlton Park pre-dates the new emphasis on design, but this and other award-winning affordable housing schemes are beginning to emerge as a by-product of initiatives such as planning policy guidance note PPG3 with its requirement for higher densities, sustainability and innovation. The challenge of building on city-centre brownfield sites has pushed housing associations to take a bolder approach to design and use a wider range of architects, rather than sticking with the tried and tested specialists.

The sustainability requirement
From 2004, all new homes financed by the Housing Corporation will have to pass the EcoHomes standard of sustainable design, which will force design higher on the agenda. Meanwhile, the emphasis on innovation in procurement and building techniques has already produced much-publicised prefabricated schemes such as Peabody's Murray Grove development in north London.

Probably the greatest challenge to overcome in improving design quality is the increasing provision of social housing through Section 106 agreements. Hyde Housing Association, for example, estimates that as few as one in seven new dwellings are acquired through their own developments. It is a problem that is also identified by the Housing Corporation's investigation as one of the key barriers to good design. The report found that, from viewpoint of developers and RSLs, lack of clarity over the definition and remit of planning agreements is leading to poor design. There are encouraging signs, however, that housing associations can take the role of lead developer, as happened on a small scale at Chorlton Park, where seven flats were sold on the private market.

David Birkbeck believes that ultimately housing associations need more muscle to be able to act in this way. He hopes that eventually the funding of housing associations will be streamlined, so that instead of 250 receiving development grants, the programme will be split between just 50 which could then become leading players.

The problem with this scenario is that it would mean an end to the developing role of small and medium-sized registered social landlords like Ujima, which, in recent years, has been one of the few to invest in good design. Inevitably it tends to be the smaller, more maverick organisations that push out the boat on design; larger associations generally favour quantity over quality.

The key catalyst for improving the design of housing could end up being tenants and residents themselves. As a result of Ujima's innovative building programme, Sue Belk has noticed there is a greater acceptance of, and even enthusiasm for, contemporary design among her tenants: "Four years ago the majority wanted to live in a traditional three-bedroom house with a garden, but that has changed." Of course, there is a long way to go in what Birkbeck calls the "makeover of public perception". Indeed, according to a MORI poll commissioned by CABE last year, the vast majority of people would still prefer to live in a bungalow, village house, Victorian terrace or suburban semi rather than a high-density contemporary block of flats.

CABE's checklist and the Housing Corporation's push for design champions are welcome initiatives. But excellence of any sort is usually the result of a struggle on the part of committed individuals. That's not an argument for making the process intentionally difficult, but for recognising that design is only as good as the people involved.

After all, even the most inspiring checklist won't tell you to specify a mound of grassy earth or a garden in the sky.