Teoría y práctica del diseño urbano para la reflexión de la ciudad contemporánea

239 Experiencias contemporáneas del diseño urbano New urban housing design in the UK ket conditions including issues of housing shortage and sup- ply, competition and investor demand; the type of developer including the model of development that the developer sub- scribes to; and, site conditions including the unique of charac- teristics of a particular site, value and ownership issues. Regulatory conditions The production of planning policy and best practice guidance relating to residential design quality has become something of a growth industry in the last 15 years or so. Indeed, this period outlines the ‘great complexity of residential design’ (Carmona, 2001: 142), which planners and their agencies have sought to define and promote. The Homes and Communities Agency website, for example, lists no fewer than 23 sets of design and construction quality standards, aimed at impro- ving the design quality of homes and neighbourhoods, and the quality of residential construction. The campaign to improve residential design quality goes back to the 1990s. Key milestones include the Urban Task Force re- port (1999), commissioned to address the problem of meeting higher demand for new homes, which advocated a design-led urban renaissance based on high quality, compact, mixed use development in towns and cities. PPG3 (2000) included a great- er emphasis on housing design, along with the emphasis on brown field and higher density development. Design became amaterial consideration inmaking decisions on planning ap- plications, and schemes could therefore be rejected on design grounds. A companion publication, By Design: Better Places to Live , produced in conjunction with CABE (2001), set out key design principles, including: • a mix of housing opportunities; • a sense of neighbourhood and community ownership; • attractive and clearly defined public and private spaces; • pleasant gardens and amenity spaces; • convenient but unobtrusive parking; • a safe and secure environment; • well-planned homes that provide space and functionality; • housing that is robust and adaptable to changing require- ments; • housing designed to minimize resource consumption.