How to meet 'second stair' regulations for buildings over 6 storeys.

Hello!

Welcome to the Blocktype Newsletter, where we share some of the things we find interesting in the world of housing design and planning. ?

Forefront to everyone's mind right now is the state of the market, but in the absence of good data on housing completions, brick deliveries are a great proxy to understand the state of the housebuilding industry (thanks to Noble Francis for this graph illustrating it.) ?

All major house builders are reporting a drop in completions, Persimmon Homes -33%, Barratt Developments -29%, Bellway Homes -28%, Crest Nicholson plc -28% and Taylor Wimpey plc -24%; but anyone who has been through a housing slump before knows that, to paraphrase Charles Darwin, it's not the strongest that survive, but the ones that are most responsive to change. In other words, NOW is the time to get ready for the next boom! ?

Euan MIlls ?(CEO + Cofounder)

How to meet 'second stair' regulations for buildings over 6 storeys.

While guidance on how to add second stairs is limited, architects are already exploring various different approaches. The best designs are those that accommodate the second stair within the same core. This approach means cores are slightly larger, but it allows for the creation of buildings with shorter corridors. @Alessandro Chiola from BTPW delves into some of these impacts in this insightful post. ??

?? TOP TIP: ?Avoid creating buildings which have stairs at either end of corridors. This undermines residents' sense of ownership, and can have detrimental impact on their sense of ownership over communal spaces as well documented here.?

We've taken some of the best two-stair core designs and incorporated them into Blocktype, so the floorplates adjust automatically when your block goes over 6 storeys.

Is expecting 100% dual aspect units unreasonable?

This blog post by Pocket Living’s Nick Cuff raises the issues and challenges with policies that mandate 100% dual-aspect units.? There are 3 ways to achieve 100% dual aspect units in flatted developments:

• Creating point blocks (aka mansion blocks if they're not too high).
• Creating buildings with single loaded corridors, such as deck access.
• Creating buildings with cores that only serve two units on each floor.

Each have their own issues when it comes to the wider impact of the urban form, ranging from inefficient floor plates to poor street enclosure.? ?This is why our Blocktype floorplates allow you to create blocks with up to 50% single aspect units.? As long as these are not north or south facing, we believe these can create high quality homes, without compromising on the urban form.

?? BLOCKTYPE UPDATES ??

1. 30% off until the end of April!

Market slow down means finances are tight. ?To help out we’re offering anyone that sees this newsletter a discount on your annual subscription. ?Just type Blocktype30 at the check-out.

2. We've been shortlisted for the Property Week RESI Awards 2024?

Awards aren't how we measure our success. ?We're more interested in how well Blocktype is working for our users. ?Nonetheless it's nice to get a bit of recognition and exposure to the wider industry.

3. Listen to the origins of Blocktype.

We’ve recently been interviewed by Kelvin Campbell and Liam Black on their Massive Small podcast about the journey that brought Euan Mills (one of our co-founders) to Blocktype. ?You can listen to the podcast here.

4. How much affordable housing do you need to provide?

We’ve been talking to our customers who told us how difficult it is to know exactly how much affordable housing is expected for a potential development, given policy requirements vary so much around the country. To tackle this, we’ve been collecting affordable housing policies from across the country and extracting the underlying logic. Expect to see affordable housing calculations in the Blocktype data panel soon!