Analysing the spatial organisation of dwellings, this study examines the design of housing from a historical perspective, what kinds of evidence-based spatial judgments exist, and how these impact the design and provision of space in homes. The study is divided into two related themes:

Theme 1, ‘Policy and Regulation’, examines the development of housing regulations and policy over time and highlights the shift from standardised plans to space standards. It analyses how quantitative space standards are derived mainly from qualitative ideas about housing and how space standards have changed over time, producing different design outcomes. 

Theme 2, ‘Housing Typologies’, studies the design evolution of London’s main housing typologies, such as terraced houses, semi-detached housing, maisonettes, and flats, but adopts a morphological classification of dwellings through their spatial organisation, number of storeys, and access type. It examines the political, economic, and cultural drivers that have shaped the design of dwellings. 

Housing Regulations

Housing policy and policy instruments are historically contextual to larger external events such as the Industrial Revolution, World War I and II or climate change and technological advancements as well as new national political or economic agendas and socio-cultural transformations.

• Building regulations, housing manuals, and pattern books during the Georgian period led to the first far-reaching standardisation of housing design and details for speculative builders and developments.
• From the use of ‘standard plans’ for Victorian philanthropic model dwellings or the Tudor Walters Report (1918), there has been a shift to ‘space standards such as those recommended by the Parker Morris Committee in 1961.
• Today, technical functional requirements based on minimum performance criteria or dimensions that can be quantitatively measured have become most common.
• Current regulations often derive from ‘good practice’ standards with a trade-off between a stronger status at the expense of weaker mandatory requirements.

Housing Assessment and Criteria

The Victorian period, concerned with public health and hygiene, based many of its housing-related policies on medical advice and health statistics. In 1917, housing evidence began to focus on technical research with the establishment of the Building Materials Research Committee. From the 1930s onwards, housing policy and planning has been increasingly based on public opinion and user data collected from occupants and housing interest groups through polls, questionnaires, and surveys, with the first English Housing Survey conducted in 1967. The Parker Morris Report (1961) is an example of the social studies that have informed housing policy and standards. Since then, housing has been widely assessed through quantitative metrics and performance requirements that no longer stipulate specific design solutions. 

• The evidence base and reasoning informing housing have significantly changed over time, from public health concerns to home use routines and technical building or material performance research.
• Socio-cultural norms and aspirations remain a great determinant of housing and its design.
• Qualitative housing criteria, such as ‘good’ design or ‘social value’ are today largely assessed using quantifiable and dimensional data criteria. Yet, how housing quality is defined or experienced is subjective and varies greatly over time. 
• Little reliable research has looked into how quantitative criteria shape housing quality, the use or experience of the home, design decisions, and housing outcomes.

Household Composition and Definitions

The needs of the working family have, since the nineteenth century, remained a key public housing concern. Housing policy and regulations have therefore been biased towards the spatial needs and organisation of the family, despite significant demographic change over the last decades. 

• Historically, the definition of the household has not been limited to familial bonds but extended to that of domestic servants and lodgers. Today, the number of households in London made up of one- or two-person households and unrelated adults living together are rapidly increasing. 
• In inner London, the majority of dwellings have one (30%) and two bedrooms (32%), while in outer London, one-bedroom dwellings account for only 16% and dwellings with three bedrooms or more make up over half of the housing stock (54%).
• There is a significant mismatch between the availability of dwelling typologies and sizes in comparison to household compositions, and demographics, leading to an increase in housing inequalities and over- or under-occupation of homes. This is in parts due to England having one of the oldest housing stocks in Europe, with 56% in inner London built before 1945.

Space Standards and the Housing Stock

Space standards are the most tangible housing design controls, however, it is not always clear how they are determined and make generalisations about common user needs. As in England properties are marketed based on the number of bedrooms and not floor areas, it shows a continuing tension between socio-cultural factors, housing market dynamics, and regulatory cultures when trying to achieve policy objectives. The conflict between safeguarding space standards and usability and economic drivers of housing has led to space standards becoming a maximum, not a minimum design target. 

• Space standards in England have fluctuated over time, reaching an all-time high with the Housing Manual of 1949. The overall recommended dwelling size has increased while bedroom sizes have decreased.
• How a building is accessed ultimately defines its disposition at the scale of both the individual unit and the wider urban context.

Evolution of Dwelling Typologies

Housing policy, standards, and design guides have historically reinforced cultural preferences for dwelling typologies, for example, the terraced house. Dwelling typologies have a specific relationship between the scale of the unit, the building, and its surrounding context and to access and circulation types. They are therefore not only determining the housing interior and its use but also the urban scale and its morphology. The transformation of dwelling typologies highlights the relationship between their layouts and a variety of social, cultural, economic, historical, technical, political, and environmental contexts. Different occupancies, building conversions, new use patterns, and user adaptations had a significant influence on dwelling layouts.

• Social transformations, especially in the post-war period, saw spatial hierarchy and organisation no longer shaped by social norms and aspirations but increasingly by considerations of efficiency, convenience, privacy and affordability. This affected the type of rooms provided in a home, for example, a parlour, the adoption of new types of circulation spaces such as corridors and access galleries, and the reorganisation of ‘public’ living spaces and ‘private’ bedrooms.
• Modern utilities and appliances in the home had a significant impact on its spatial and functional organisation, for example, the rearrangement of kitchens, WCs, and bathrooms.
• There has been a change from the standardisation of dwelling typologies to the standardisation of rooms and elements within the home.
• There has been a shift from building two- and three-storey dwellings such as terraced and semi-detached houses to single-storey dwellings such as flats, both historically and in terms of location within the city. Today flats account for over 54% of London’s housing stock while terraced housing, once the predominant housing type, now constitutes a mere 25.9%.
• The increase of flats in London has also been the result of many conversions of terraced housing. This terraced-house-flat hybrid demonstrates the unreliability of conventional housing typologies, as dwellings and their classification and function can change over time – from a house to a flat.

Outputs

Jacoby, S., Arancibia, A. & Alonso, L. (2022). Space standards and housing design: Typological experimentation in England and Chile. The Journal of Architecture.