Journal

With an increasing number of green and grey-belt sites coming forward for development, and having reviewed and visited a few examples of suburban housing over the last few weeks, it is clear that the success or not of these developments is as much a function of the space between the buildings as the buildings themselves. And the success, or otherwise, of THAT space often comes down to how you deal with cars, specifically car parking.

We’d all like to imagine that cars don’t exist, but the reality is that if you live in a suburban location with limited access to public transport (there’s a whole separate discussion here), you will need a car.

It’s not exciting, or sexy, but get the car parking and highways infrastructure wrong and all the architecture in the world isn’t going to help you make a successful place.

With that in mind, Homes England’s 2nd revision of Parking: What Works Where, put together by Proctor & Matthews Architects and David Birkbeck is a terrific compendium of useful case studies and examples. If you’re working on green/grey-belt developments it’s perfect bedtime reading. I’d recommend it. Available here.

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