The Number 1 Rule for Masterplanners
Dame Mary Berry, The Queen of Baking, sets out the most important rule to successful masterplanning - it is all about measuring the ingredients!
“The most important thing is to measure the ingredients accurately and to use the right sized tin”
Mary Berry
2014
When planning a large scale strategic housing development, it's rather like preparing a recipe. The most important step is to get the ingredients, or in this case, the housing mix, just right before you begin. Now, this mix might come from the local authority, based on housing needs, or from developers who know what the market craves. But, much like a cake, if you don't measure properly before you start, it could all go a bit wrong!
Here are three good reasons to get the mix right from the start:
Know the Capacity of the Site: Just like knowing the size of your cake tin, understanding the housing mix will tell you how much the site can hold.
Accurate Financial Appraisals: If you've measured everything correctly, you’ll know exactly how much it's going to cost, avoiding any nasty surprises later.
Saving Time and Resources: If your ingredients are correct, there's no need to go back and adjust things—saving time, money, and effort.
The relationship between housing mix and density can be tricky, like balancing flavours in a recipe. Asking designers to create "rough layouts" to test how much the site can handle is like hoping the cake will rise without testing the oven temperature—it's a gamble!
Most of the ingredients for strategic masterplans are easy to measure accurately - apart from the housing.
This masterplan for Glebe Farm in Cambridge included modest terraces of fruit cake and marzipan clad apartments.
So if you fancy creating a truly scrumptious housing development or successful strategic masterplan? Well, you'll need this indispensable guide - the new and improved Manual of Housing Density, 3rd Edition!
It's like your favourite recipe book, but for houses! This updated edition is packed with all sorts of lovely new things, like large-scale masterplanning tools and land use measurements.
And the best part? This marvellous manual helps you work out just how many different house types you can fit in. It's the trickiest part, but don't worry, this book makes it easy!
Don't delay, get your copy today!
The Manual of
Housing Density
3rd Edition
The quotation in the green box is from Mary Berry herself. The rest of this article was written by Bluepencil.
