The traditional approach to large-scale housing delivery needs to change.

In most cases, design teams undertake capacity studies based on physical, legal and planning constraints. These studies are costed and appraised prior to further design development, public consultation, planning consent and then delivery.

When this works well, design iterations are minimal and incorporated quickly before progressing each site to delivery. However, this approach has several flaws.

To begin with, it often fails to consider factors outside of the ‘spatial’. A whole range of competing priorities, ranging from funding to local need, politics, market appetite and economic impact, all of which are embedded in viability, can influence how a housing programme should be delivered. By failing to appreciate these early in the process, sites end up stalled and undeliverable.

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