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

243 Experiencias contemporáneas del diseño urbano New urban housing design in the UK certain types of developer over others. Moreover, in situa- tions where there is a housing shortage, and consumers are motivated to purchase housing in order to get a foot on the housing market ladder, developers may have little incentive to improve design quality. The experience of the past decade also reminds us that the credit market can influence the pattern of housing supply in important ways. The wholly unanticipated emergence of the buy-to-let phenomenon in many towns and cities has, it can be argued, shaped the pattern of provision to respond to the requirements of investors rather than consumers. This is a specific example of the commoditisation of homes in particu- lar market conditions. The type of developer The source of the ‘poor design problem’ according to a devel- opment process perspective lies in the social and state-market relations prevalent in the UK house building industry (see also Ball, 1983): ‘Speculative strategies, while enabling high profits to be made in the short-term ….. result in unstable pro- duction levels and a lower quality, often poor value for money product’ (Barlow and Duncan, 1994 quoted in Adams 2004). The change in government policy in the 1990s and the emphasis on brown field development posed a challenge to the traditional speculative house builder model, which evolved when most new residential development took place on green field sites (Adams (2004). Adams argues that building onbrown field sites implies that developers will not be able to rely on gains from land value, as such sites command higher prices and are typi- cally acquired and developed over a shorter time scale. Brown field sites are also more problematic, standardized designs are less appropriate and developments will have to be acceptable to and integrated with existing urban communities. “The problematic nature of many brownfield loca- tions means that developers will need to deliver value added directly from housing products rather than rely on gaining profits from inflation in land prices. House builders will also need to develop greater skills in achieving integration with and supporting local com- munities rather than merely constructing housing es- tates. Much higher standards of urban design are likely