ZCD Architects have developed a system to do exactly that. We can help you predict and plan successful places that meet your social impact objectives, that are sustainable and can support healthy lives.
At the heart of what we do is our unique mapping system, grounded in over 10 years of rigorous and published research. We apply it to large scale as well as infill projects, new or existing, working with developers, housing associations and local authorities.
Each space is scored according to four principles, see below. When a space scores well across all four, it appears as a ‘warm’ colour on a map. These warm spaces, so-called ‘doorstep spaces’, will work well for social interaction and play. They will be spaces that the community will enjoy spending time in and can support healthy lives.
‘Cool’ spaces are difficult for the community to use, for children to be able to play out in and can even be the source of anti social behaviour and crime.
Heat mapping is a science for housing, one that you should be applying from the start. It can be used to improve early stage designs or even to set benchmarks for local plans, development plans and masterplans.
Heat Map, Aspern Seestadt Vienna
We start by creating a heat map of your development site which will reveal the relationship between homes and external spaces.
The mapping system can underpin briefing, setting benchmarks before design or development teams are procured.
It can also help set the brief for community engagement, shifting the conversation away from parking into an outcomes approach that allows geniune conversations and buy in from the community.
Your project will benefit from this approach. Our mapping provides the basis for a common language for interrogating layouts, engaging with your community and meeting planning objectives.
Put simply, you can’t afford not to: National policy and design guidance has embedded our research. The NPPF and the Design and Placemaking PPG now require external spaces on housing developments to support play and social interaction. The mapping system is the clearest way to demonstrate compliance.
But it’s about more than policy, we work with development and design teams that want to achieve good social outcomes on their projects, who want to make places that people choose to live in and stay. Our job is to help them do that.
The short answer is everybody. We know that housing layouts that are well designed benefit children and young people and spaces that are well used by children are well used by adults too.
We also know that sustainable communities are built on community trust. Our mapping system is underpinned by extensive community engagement, much of it intergenerational. The mapping language is straightforward and accessible for residents of all ages and provides a sound way for navigating some of the more thorny issues as well.
Heat maps score spaces based on four criteria.
Here we apply the four criteria to Goldsmith Street by Mikhail Riches Architects.