14 CONTEXT 181 : SEPTEMBER 2024 PETER DE FIGUEIREDO The revival of urban council housing Peter Barber’s work shows that it is possible to deliver publicly funded housing of real quality at an affordable cost by reviving forgotten building types and urban customs. The Victorian street lined with terraced houses, each with its own front entrance and private open space at the rear, is a powerful symbol of urban domesticity. Social bonding and community engagement have thrived in these densely populated developments and, despite large-scale clearance and replacement in the post-war period, many such dwellings have survived. In part this was due to enlightened local authorities that bought up and improved the privately rented houses, giving their residents secure tenancies and thus conserving the identity of settlements across Britain. The economic and social benefits of municipal housing, however, were undermined by the policies of the Thatcher government, which introduced the right for occupants to buy council houses at subsidised prices and curtailed local governments’ power to build new dwellings. Housebuilding was thus placed in the hands of the private sector and housing associations, which favoured the suburban model. In 1999, following the election of the Labour government, the architect Richard Rogers was invited to set up an urban task force to establish a vision for towns and cities, based on the principles of design excellence, social wellbeing and environmental sustainability. Towards an Urban Renaissance, the task force’s report, foresaw an urban environment of mixed communities, car-free and densely developed. A former member of Rogers’ office was Peter Barber, who had set up his own practice in 1989 specialising in social housing, and whose work most convincingly brings to life the intentions of the Rogers report.1 Several Peter Barber Architects’ (PBA) schemes have now been built across London, the typical site being leftover backland, redundant car parks or former garages, sites that most contemporary house builders would reject. But instead of the usual slab blocks of apartments with single-aspect flats served by central corridors favoured by commercial developers, PBA’s approach draws on the urban grain and vernacular forms of previous centuries that give character to historic places. These include backto-back units, once commonplace in northern England and the midlands before they were condemned as insanitary, walk-up tenements as found in Glasgow, shared courtyards, narrow streets, balconies and open terraces. Donnybrook Quarter One of Barber’s earliest projects was the Donnybrook Quarter in Bow, completed in 2006 Each home in Donnybrook Quarter has its own front door opening on to a pedestrian-only street and a small square, and either an outdoor private yard or a roof terrace. (All photos by Peter de Figueiredo) 1 Architectural Review, July/ August 2019
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