News and articles
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Latest articles

Building for Life Award winners announced
6 November 2008
Twenty four fine housing schemes were recognised at this year’s prestigious Building for Life awards ceremony, demonstrating a commitment to high quality design, good placemaking and sustainable development. More schemes were submitted this year than ever before.

Accordia - "a good piece of ordinariness"
Keith Bradley
5 November 2008Keith Bradley gives a photographic walkthrough of Accordia, the 2008 Stirling Prize winner.

Building for Life...on the rim of a recession?
Keith Bradley
5 November 2008Keith Bradley, one of the architects behind Accordia, speaks about the state of the housing market in England at the Building for Life Awards.

CABE to train Building for Life assessors
30 October 2008
A nationwide network of 500 accredited assessors is being set up by CABE to enable new housing schemes to be evaluated against the Building for Life criteria.

A thought occurred to me...
Nick Johnson, Urban Splash
10 June 2008Nick Johnson – director of development at Urban Splash – discusses the “property conundrum”. How can property prices truly reflect the value-added of living in a well-designed sustainable home?

Nightmare on Superdense Street?
Richard Mullane, Design for Homes
11 March 2008Is high density living achievable and desirable? Richard Mullane reflects on Design for Homes’ guidance Recommendations for Living at Superdensity

Design challenges for house builders
Trevor Wright, Redrow Homes
17 December 2007“Good design can add real value to the business”. Trevor Wright – design director at Redrow Homes – outlines the importance of high quality design and implementation to the competitiveness of house builders.

A model for 21st-century living
Rosie Boycott, The Guardian
13 December 2007Rosie Boycott – former editor of the Independent – writes in praise of Great Bow Yard, upside down houses and all. The scheme won a Building for Life award in 2007.

Addressing the design quality of new housing in the East Midlands
Margaret Allen, Housing Corporation
17 September 2007Margaret Allen – former Building for Life judge – looks at the response in the East Midlands to the results of CABE’s housing audit. Over half of the schemes assessed were poor. A new initiative has put stakeholders at the forefront of achieving good design.

Striving for design excellence in the West Midlands
Adrian Passmore, RegenWM
14 September 2007Can Building for Life become a “touchstone standard for quality”? Adrian Passmore – chief executive of RegenWM – looks at how a partnership is committed to a vast improvement in the design quality of housing in the West Midlands.
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