Design standards in social housing delivery

Senior architect advisor within the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage’s (DHLGH) housing advisory unit, Joan MacMahon, discusses the role of design standardisation measures in ensuring affordable delivery.

DHLGH’s housing advisory unit comprises a team of architects and quantity surveyor advisors, which provides technical advice to colleagues across the social housing division and wider Department. Primarily, it evaluates funding applications for social housing against several metrics including the quality of the development, the appropriate level of specification, the consistency with the Department’s design standards and guidelines, and ultimately, value for money.

These assessments are guided by the Design Manual for Quality Housing and Employers Requirements for Detail Design of Quality Housing policy documents which, operating under the ambitions and targets of Housing for All, are intended to provide a consistent standard for social housing development nationally, and facilitate an efficient approval process for the Department.

“The Design Manual for Quality Housing outlines appropriate site layout principles and illustrates acceptable internal layouts, while the Employers’ Requirements document sets out an appropriate level of specification which are considered eligible for department funding and delivering value for money. Overall, the intent is that the standardised approach will bring a benefit to industry, with efficiencies in tendering supply programming and a much more standardised and consistent set of works requirements,” explains MacMahon.

The senior architect advisor outlines the importance of input and feedback from consultation with the social housing delivery sector in formulating the documents, particularly in ensuring some flexibility exists, while maximising efficiencies.

“The layouts presuppose indicative greenfield or brownfield sites, while department policy also encourages town centre brownfield housing. Effectively, every site is different. There is an acknowledgement that every site must respond to its own immediate context, but clear principles in the guidance should be transferable across every site and every condition.”

Outlining the composition of the Design Manual for Quality Housing, MacMahon explains that chapters one and two deal with site selection and the design brief, while chapter three sets out urban design and master planning principles. Chapter four provides guidance in terms of site layouts and apartment buildings, leaving chapter five to outline guidance and individual internal layouts.

Discussing the importance of chapter five, she says: “It provides a graphical representation of the space standards that were established in the 2007 Quality Housing for Sustainable Communities document and the design standards for new apartments guidelines.

“There is an acknowledgement that every site must respond to its own immediate context, but clear principles in the guidance should be transferable across every site and every condition.” Joan MacMahon, Senior architect advisor within the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (DHLGH)

“There is a large number of options and variations covered in terms of houses, duplexes, apartments and community dwellings. Importantly, we have included 16 universal design or UD units, which they were developed following really informative engagement with colleagues in the National Disability Authority’s Centre for Excellence in Universal Design and following feedback from the local authority sector. All internal layouts are available in digital format and AutoCAD, meaning they are available to download to allow for ease of adoption.”

MacMahon explains that the Government’s Roadmap for increased adoption of MMC in Public Housing delivery published in 2023, which set out the Government’s intention to lead by example on decarbonisation by progressing advanced and efficient construction methods and delivery of housing, has led to the inclusion of a limited number of internal layouts, reviewed by the Department and the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA), to allow for ease of delivery utilising MMC (including 3D volumetric).

“We have looked at including a number of these standardised units, and through engagement with colleagues in the NDFA during the early stages of the design development of bundles four and five of the PPP programme, which will deliver approximately 1,500 units across 20 sites and six local authorities.

“The standardised approach that was taken on at the very initiation of those design development stages of those bundles has been of benefit to the Department, particularly in terms of efficient approvals.”

However, MacMahon suggests that standardisation enables extra time and scope to focus on unit quality and that the real benefit of a consistent design approach across the sector will be felt by those tendering to produce the units.

Employers Requirements for Detail Design of Quality Housing

Turning to the Department’s Employers Requirements for Detail Design of Quality Housing document, an outline standard specification, MacMahon explains that it sets out the general qualities of materials, finishes, and fittings that are considered eligible for department funding and delivering value for money.

She outlines: “The format of both publications is such that they can be updated, should emerging policy need to be addressed. At present, the employers’ requirements document is under review, and I understand each local authority has been contacted with a request to submit feedback for incorporation in the latest update. We look forward to incorporating that and continuing to evolve that document.”

Concluding, MacMahon welcomes sectoral involvement in the formation of both policy documents, stating: “It is really positive to see that a number of design proposals are now coming forward, utilising design manual layouts. It is expected the standardised approach will really deliver benefits in the future as we look to meet our housing delivery targets.”