Wed, 23 Mar 2011
When I was a child I used to dream about living in South Croydon bus garage.
We used to pass it on the way to school every day and my brother and I would dream of buying it one day and turning into our apartment. It’s not the most welcoming of space; purpose built by the LGOC (London General Omnibus Company or LGOC) in 1915 it is, as you can imagine, a bit utilitarian - a vast column free warehouse of space - but it would have been perfect. Imagine riding your BMX from the kitchen to the living room and taking the skateboard from TV to bed.
I also always wondered what it would be like to live in a shop.
I also always wondered what it would be like to live in a shop.
Flower Shop for sale Hoxton Street
Something about the very public idea of having a shop front as part of a home stirred the imagination - that the strangeness to having a public face to a private space would be a wonderful addition. A celebration of living somehow.
And who wouldn’t dream of living in an office?
And who wouldn’t dream of living in an office?
Empty office space
The cool steel space of empty office interiors always resonated with me. Deep long plans, the raised floors with their unassuming galvanised steel plates, the panoramic ribbon windows.
As I grew older and grasped the reality of planning laws, commercial rates and the principles zoning in urban planning those, childhood ambitions were slowly but steadfastly thwarted. I still, however, often pass disused commercial spaces and stop and wonder.
The news this week that the government might change its rules to allow vacant commercial units to be turned into housing without the need for planning permission, piqued the imagination all over again.
The idea comes from a think tank, Policy Exchange, which has written the report More Homes: Fewer Empty Buildings, full report here.
It is essentially calling for a reform of the use classes order which would make it much easier to switch from Use Class A (retail) and B (employment) to C3 (dwelling houses). It could have far and wide reaching implications but one of the most engaging quotes from Alex Morton (co-author of the report): “Just because a building has always been a shop or offices shouldn’t have to mean it stays that way forever,” very clearly sets down the idea that change is not only good but it is something that we should open our imagination to and as the report makes abundantly clear, that it is desperately needed.
At least 17% of offices in the South East alone, are currently vacant and are often left empty or even derelict because planning policy impedes their conversion to housing.
So what would it be like to live on a high street?
Well right now it might be a bit bleak. The recession has put pay to the high street hay day of the past and giant supermarkets have out played the butcher and the baker altogether. Perhaps even the very idea of a high street is an antiquated notion. The majority of us do at least 10% of our spending online, and the high street now seems resigned to charity shops, pound shops and betting shops. Which all raises the very important question what do you want your high street of the future to be like?
What intrigued me when I was ten, as it still does today, was the quite obvious bizarre quality of living somewhere where you are not supposed to. If the entire high street changed completely to residential then the inherent bizarreness would disappear too. So what is important, if this idea ever turns into legislation and is carried through the planning process, is that the semblance of a high street is maintained. Indeed the report sets out ways to ensure that thriving and much loved staples of the British high street, such as the Village Shop and the Pub on the corner can be safeguarded and maintained.
As I grew older and grasped the reality of planning laws, commercial rates and the principles zoning in urban planning those, childhood ambitions were slowly but steadfastly thwarted. I still, however, often pass disused commercial spaces and stop and wonder.
The news this week that the government might change its rules to allow vacant commercial units to be turned into housing without the need for planning permission, piqued the imagination all over again.
The idea comes from a think tank, Policy Exchange, which has written the report More Homes: Fewer Empty Buildings, full report here.
It is essentially calling for a reform of the use classes order which would make it much easier to switch from Use Class A (retail) and B (employment) to C3 (dwelling houses). It could have far and wide reaching implications but one of the most engaging quotes from Alex Morton (co-author of the report): “Just because a building has always been a shop or offices shouldn’t have to mean it stays that way forever,” very clearly sets down the idea that change is not only good but it is something that we should open our imagination to and as the report makes abundantly clear, that it is desperately needed.
At least 17% of offices in the South East alone, are currently vacant and are often left empty or even derelict because planning policy impedes their conversion to housing.
So what would it be like to live on a high street?
Well right now it might be a bit bleak. The recession has put pay to the high street hay day of the past and giant supermarkets have out played the butcher and the baker altogether. Perhaps even the very idea of a high street is an antiquated notion. The majority of us do at least 10% of our spending online, and the high street now seems resigned to charity shops, pound shops and betting shops. Which all raises the very important question what do you want your high street of the future to be like?
What intrigued me when I was ten, as it still does today, was the quite obvious bizarre quality of living somewhere where you are not supposed to. If the entire high street changed completely to residential then the inherent bizarreness would disappear too. So what is important, if this idea ever turns into legislation and is carried through the planning process, is that the semblance of a high street is maintained. Indeed the report sets out ways to ensure that thriving and much loved staples of the British high street, such as the Village Shop and the Pub on the corner can be safeguarded and maintained.
For all the internet shopping and supermarkets, what most people actually want, and indeed go to great lengths to seek out, is a good quality butcher, a great local green grocers and perhaps even a little one-off boutique.
And wouldn’t living amongst them all be a thrill?
And wouldn’t living amongst them all be a thrill?
Read more: http://www.bdonline.co.uk/comment/blogs/the-architects-blog#ixzz1HkW8ypzV
BDonline.co.uk
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
0 comments:
Post a Comment