Manual on the preparation of state-aided housing schemes.

Date:
1919
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Manual on the preparation of state-aided housing schemes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    27/86 (page 21)
    Number of Houses to the Acre to be Erected. 7. For determining the number of houses to the acre, it is necessary to define the area which is referred to. “‘ Gross Area”’ refers to the acreage of the site including the area of roads on the site and minor open spaces, but excluding any sites reserved for buildings other than dwellings, and also excluding large open spaces ; although these latter may be taken into account to the extent to which they effectively contribute to the open space about the dwellings. By “ Nett Area ”’ is meant the land devoted to sites for dwelling houses, gardens and such minor open spaces as may be provided in place of dividing such land into separate gardens. The land occupied by the necessary roads, sites for other buildings or by large or detached open spaces is excluded, 8. Great importance is attached to the provision of an adequate area of land in connection with the State-aided housing schemes, so that sufficient gardens, allotments, playgrounds, greens or other open spaces may be arranged. Climate, soil, the nature of employment and other conditions differ so much locally that considerable variation in the arrangement and apportionment of the land as between individual gardens and other purposes will naturally be desirable. But, in whatever way apportioned, the Board desire that, where practicable, sites should be chosen in ordinary urban areas which will allow an average of about 400 square yards of land per house, equivalent to 12 houses to the acre “‘ nett area’ ; and they consider that apart from exceptional circumstances the density should not generally exceed 12 houses to the acre “‘ gross area’ in Urban Areas and 8 houses to the acre “ nett area’ in rural districts. The Board recognise that one standard cannot be rigidly applied to all places or conditions and that some variation will be necessary to meet the different circumstances. 9. Special consideration will be given to exceptional circumstances, such, for example, as the existence of roads already made which are so spaced that great waste of road frontage might be involved by.strict adherence to the limitation suggested, or the existence of other open space in the neighbourhood of the site, or any unusual limitation of the area of land suitable for the erection of houses within the district where they are required, Effect of Reduced Density on Cost of Development. 10. Asa general rule, the small saving in cost which may result from placing a larger number of houses on the land is not such as to compensate for the disadvantages which follow. The saving in actual cost of each developed house plot which can be secured by increasing the number of houses to the acre, diminishes in amount as that number increases ; the area of the plot available for each house is reduced so much more rapidly than is the cost of the plot, that the cost per square yard of available ground rises steadily with the increased number of houses to the acre. An increasing proportion of each acre of land is occupied by the extra roads necessary to provide frontage for the additional houses, a smaller area therefore remains to divide into an increased number of plots. Each additional cross road added for the purpose of providing the increased frontage involves the loss of some effective building frontage at each end. 11. Where the cost of land is low and the cost of road-making relatively high, the disadvantage of crowding too many houses on the land is greater ; where, on the other hand, road-making is relatively inexpensive and the price of land is high, the reverse is the case. In normal circumstances, however, the increased area of the plot obtained by adopting the standard of 12 houses to the acre is well worth the slight extra rent per plot needed to pay for the ground.