The Compact City - The EU's vision for the future - the lessons to be learnt from the 1960s high density development

On EU advice, all countries in Europe are supposed to ensure that all future residential development is laid out in a compact manner. It is proving to be a very difficult policy to implement - for instance, in Brussels, a relatively high density city, a survey of the many thousands of people who have left to live elsewhere in the past five years has shown that they have done this because they want to live somewhere 'green' (A. van Herzele et al, 2002). Looking at Britain too, there remains a great demand for new housing in suburban style at suburban densities, despite governmental planning guidance which aims at a minimum of 35 dwellings per hectare. It is essential, therefore, to investigate whether it is possible to achieve higher densities and yet retain the 'green' qualities which inhabitants are demanding. The remaining high-rise housing schemes of the 1960s are natural laboratories to try out new approaches. In many instances the apartments and buildings are being improved through the designation of Housing Action Areas. However, only seldom is the 'sea of greenspace' so often provided by the original planners being subjected to a similar level of regeneration. Characteristically the greenspace associated with such 1960s high-rise is a 'grass desert', in a few instances and particularly in the Netherlands supplemented by a mass of standard trees spaced at regular intervals, the whole producing a structureless landscape. Spaces described by the local inhabitants as 'alienating' space, 'nothing happens in it' space, 'boring/ dull' and too often, a 'frightening' space. These are spaces often with no natural environmental or aesthetic value; notoriously they have have been associated with low quality of life assessments by the public who inhabit them. If such spaces can be changed so that the local people feel they belong to them - to their community - then that sense of pride in belonging to and in living in a particular area of a city has some chance to develop. It will not be cheap, but if it works then it will be far, far cheaper for society than demolishing and coping with all the social problems associated with what the local population consider to be substandard housing.

Source: http://www.thesteelvalleyproject.info/green/Places/residential/high-rise.htm