At this time of year, most of us will have the heating on and the windows and doors tightly shut against the UK’s chilly outside temperatures. It’s a long way from the sweltering heat we suffered in our homes just a few months ago, I hear you Brits cry!
But as we approach better weather, have you ever wondered why we struggle to keep our homes warm in the winter then suffer from uncomfortably high indoor temperatures when there’s even a little summer sun? Our neighbours in Europe don’t seem to have such problems, so why are British houses so very different from those in warmer climes, where it is not uncommon for homes to nestle closely together in shady streets with cool courtyards for outside space?
The answer lies largely in the past.
Britain has some of the worst-performing housing in Europe. It is poorly insulated, draughty, has no shading and is badly orientated. For decades, or even centuries, the construction industry has built homes with insufficient insulation and little regard to environmental performance. Of course, this didn’t matter too much if we could readily access and burn cheap coal and summers were generally cooler than nowadays.
The Nipple Rule
We still have some pretty archaic rules when it comes to housebuilding, not least the “nipple rule”, which relates, in many parts of the UK, to homes that are built back-to-back.
The nipple rule is so called thanks to the actions of Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker. In order to provide for privacy, the urban designers decided to walk apart in a field until such time that they could no longer see each other’s nipples through their shirts. They deemed the distance between them to be 70 feet (21 metres) and this distance became the standard for positioning back to back terraced housing, that is still used over 120 years later, to dictate the distance from which British homes should be built apart from each other. As such, entire neighbourhoods have been built a distance apart more to do with visual modesty than with any regard to comfort.
Tiny Rooms
Older terraced homes were traditionally built with front rooms to the front for receiving guests and more functional rooms to the rear. The rooms were also small (amongst the smallest in Europe) with low ceilings. To address the size of rooms, a new standard was put in place in the 1960s, for minimum room sizes in public housing. This Parker Morris standard was abolished in 1980 and led to smaller homes being built that were, on average, half the size of some European homes.
In addition, an estimated 65,000 “micro homes” have been created in recent years within defunct office and commercial space – without planning permission because of deregulation. Some of these are as tiny as 10/15 sq metres and built in unsuitable and inappropriate buildings that have little sound insulation, become overheated and are at risk of being overcrowded.
Position
Another problem associated with homes built face to face and far apart is overheating. Orientation also plays a part due to the movement of the sun and the prevailing wind direction.
Cross-ventilation is also no longer a factor of housing standards. This can be achieved by designing homes with opening windows at opposite sides of the property that can provide ventilation through the building. Today’s common single aspect homes are difficult to cool, especially when they are small houses or flats.
The Way Forward
The challenge now is to identify ways in which our homes can be made more habitable all year round, ideally through encouraging improvements to existing buildings rather than the more environmentally costly option of replacing with new construction. Many of these solutions have already been identified but are not yet a requirement, including shading, insulation, ventilation, tree planting and the re-introduction of space standards.
Privacy, also, should not be overlooked. While we agree that the nipple rule is somewhat archaic, we also do not want to experience first hand the conversation or TV choice of our neighbours without leaving our own homes.
The housing group, Design for Homes, highlighted the privacy problems that exist in some housing developments in its study: Perceptions of Privacy and Density, which surveyed home owners of various house age and type for their thoughts on space, security, sound and safety. Of major concern to owners of 1930s semis and 1990s large executive homes was noise intrusion, including the ability to hear neighbours and being heard by them. This problem is usually the result of poor construction and party wall detailing, or badly placed windows.
However, perhaps surprisingly, rather than getting away from the neighbours, the most important aspect of privacy that is not (yet) included in any regulations was found to be … getting away from other members of the same household.