Happiness Belongs in the Master Plan

Landscape, lighting, finishes and seating shape how residents feel about where they live, and each is far harder to change once a scheme is built. 

 At a Glance 

• Resident happiness cannot easily be retrofitted, and it should not be an afterthought in the design. Landscape, lighting, entrances and seating are set at master plan stage, so the landscape architect and the teams who will maintain the site belong in the brief from day one. 

• Signs, floors, handrails and planting are usually left until the end and picked from a catalogue. On one regenerated estate, cheap signage and flooring in the social rent entrances marked them out from the private sale homes, although the outsides looked identical. 

• A resident survey on one redevelopment tracks how people feel about their homes, neighbourhood and services. Doors are knocked every six months, starting before demolition and continuing after residents move in, with around half responding. 

Show notes 

Whether a neighbourhood makes people happy is largely settled before construction starts. Landscape, lighting, entrances, seating and the orientation of buildings are fixed at master plan stage, and schemes that leave them out cannot easily recover the original vision. Regeneration attention tends to go to demolition, density, building heights and materials, yet the purpose of the work is the people who live there and the generations that follow. Strong master planners are scarcer than architects, and a well drawn plan is still readable on the ground a century later. The landscape architect belongs in the team at that stage. 

Abri is measuring the effect at The Granges in Windsor, where four 1960s tower blocks are being replaced by 413 homes in a scheme of around £180 million. A baseline survey of residents’ views on their homes, neighbourhood and services showed a perceived quality of life lower than in surrounding neighbourhoods. Doors are now knocked every six months, with around 50% responding across three rounds so far, and the survey will continue through demolition, construction and move in. The financial argument runs alongside the human one: residents who are content are expected to look after their homes better and stay longer, which lowers repair costs, turnover and void periods. That makes the case relevant to finance and operations colleagues as well as design teams. 

Landscape carries much of the work. The Granges began with tarmac, garages and extensive surface car parking, and the external space has to function for decades after residents move in. On the first block of 61 homes, a podium garden planned with a grassed area beside the planting was changed late to full planting with trees and embedded lighting, because grass would be trampled, lighting columns knocked over, and residents on the upper floors look down on the space. The Sutton Estate in Chelsea, a set of 1913 mansion blocks previously surrounded by tarmac and laurels, shows the result: the planting is stronger three years on than at installation, and residents mention landscape first. Abri’s grounds teams have been shown the planting regime, asked where they need water butts and machine access, and taken to see a planted podium in Reading. 

Signage, lighting columns, street furniture, communal floor finishes, handrails, door handles and taps are often ordered from a catalogue at the end of a project. On one regenerated estate, the exteriors of social rent, shared ownership and private homes were identical, but the social rent entrances had circa 1975 blue plastic signs and cheap lino while the private entrances had a stone finish. Residents visiting from another scheme registered the difference immediately. Choosing these items early does not necessarily raise cost: at The Granges, resident workshops have covered kitchens, worktops, communal paint finishes and feature walls, and small additions of that kind might add £4,000 or £5,000 in a £180 million project. Considering what it feels like to arrive at the front door from the start changes what is specified and how it is procured. 

Lighting works differently from the assumption that brighter is safer. External lighting at twilight levels, without dark spots, gives an even light that feels safe at night and keeps an entrance visible from 50 metres, so lighting also serves as wayfinding. Inside, pendant lights are standard in Abri’s employer’s requirements but unsuitable for kitchens, and the lighting in one bed flat hallways is being adjusted. Seating and building orientation follow the human scale described in Jan Gehl’s Life Between Buildings, where the first ten feet or so that a person interacts with matter most. At Ravensbury in Mitcham, front steps raised for flood risk were built wider so residents can sit out and see their neighbours, facing drainage designed as part of the landscape, and a change of brick pattern at a corner can help people find their way. 

Demographic change has no regulatory response comparable to climate change. More people want to live independently in their own homes for longer, and few schemes in the UK yet build in flexibility for how households may change over 10, 50 and 100 years. Holland and Denmark do this better, and Phoenix Housing Association has delivered purpose built buildings in Lewisham where young and older people live together and support one another. Master plans drawn now will still be on the ground in 100 years. 

Practical steps for housing providers 

• Review the employer’s requirements before tender and list every item picked from a catalogue at the end, such as signage, lighting, communal floor finishes and handrails. 

• Involve residents in choosing those finishes alongside kitchens and worktops. 

• Bring the landscape architect into the brief at master plan stage, ask grounds teams where they need machine access and water butts, and specify planting where grass would be trampled. 

• Light external areas to avoid dark spots and keep entrances visible from a distance, rather than lighting every surface brightly. 

• Take a baseline of how residents feel about their homes, neighbourhood and services before work starts, repeat it at set intervals, and read it alongside repairs, turnover and void data. 

• Test master plans against how households may change over 50 to 100 years, including more people living independently for longer. 

• Visit completed schemes with design, operations and finance colleagues, so that the case for early design decisions is shared across those functions. 

Host and guest 

Host: Jenny Danson, CEO and Co-Founder, Healthy Homes Hub 

Guest: Paul Quinn, Regeneration and Strategic Asset Director, Abri