Poor Design Blights New Urban Housing

Poor Design Blights New Urban Housing
Wales has "lost its way" when it comes to building homes people will want to live in, warns the head of the Design Commission for Wales.

Richard Parnaby praised the Millennium Stadium and the Wales Millennium Centre as examples of great building projects but said urban areas were being wrecked because basic building principles have been forgotten.

He said, "Not many people are conscious of the way in which good design affects our daily lives. While our forefathers might have got it right when designing buildings, it seems Wales has lost its way in recent times in terms of utilising best practices in design and architecture in particular in the urban environment and in designing new communities.

"Many new houses feel less substantial and more cramped than their older neighbours and often lack a sense of character. Profit-driven building projects based on poor overall design have created ill thought-out spaces and homogenous buildings across towns and cities in Wales." The quality of life in a community, he said, is directly linked to the quality of architecture.

He said, "Don't provide places for criminals to lurk. This is an old principle that's continually being rediscovered."

Mr Parnaby is calling for architects to begin building a new generation of Welsh homes which will follow the principles of the past and i