Mixtures and Houses
3 reasons why you must get the housing mix right as early as possible in the design process!
When embarking on the design of a housing layout the most important thing is to establish the capacity of the site and understand the housing mix. The mix may be local authority driven, according to housing needs, or it may be developer driven with input from sales teams who understand the market. It sounds obvious but the mix is usually not tested until a layout is produced.
Three reasons why you should get the mix right before a layout is produced:
You will know the true capacity of the site
Your financial appraisals will be based on accurate information
You will save time, cost and resources.
The relationship between housing mix and density is difficult to understand. A lot of time and cost is taken up with architects and designers producing ‘rough layouts’ to test the capacity of the site. The phrase ‘its a bit fudged but can be refined later through detailed design’ is not uncommon in the industry.
There is no need to fudge the numbers if you get the mix right first.
This layout for a site in Kent worked out at 30 dwellings per hectare, achievable only because of its grid pattern.
Bluepencil have created six online calculators FREE for you to use and have published a guide to help you work out how much land your housing mix will require. This means you will understand its true density and the exact number of houses in the right mix.
THIS WILL SAVE YOU TIME AND MONEY
We invite you to try the free caculators here
