Page 12 - planet_rent

 direct residents through the community focal point and facilities (think Las Vegas you can’t get
out of the hotel for slot machines and Croupiers). Even if you have a block without facilities
design central front access opposite the focal community space,

 maximise residents opportunity to meet people, the 'good morning’ in the corridor is an
essential part of community building,

 provide secondary access cores for furniture and/or for ‘slip-in’ access from a car park or
loading bay,
 maximise natural light in corridors and use secondary access cores to supplement natural light,

 consider ease of moving furniture around. To keep rents affordable, you might offer rent/buy
furniture packs, or opt to provide minimal furniture with additional furniture rented,
 longer straight corridors will suffer less damage and are cheaper and easier to decorate and
maintain, as well as reducing health and safety risks by borrowing light should a light fitting fail,

 less entry points reduces plant and equipment (such as lifts), and offers a child and pushchair
friendly solution.

1.14 The biggest threat to viability in a Build to Rent scheme is unnecessary communal areas and
unnecessary or over-specified plant. Fewer communal areas encourages a sense of arrival,
concentrates staff and creates a sense of community, all of which make it easier for the professional
landlord to establish a brand, community space and interior design theme.

That said, not every site is a tower so to maximise togetherness the dual front site entry is an
alternative with 'slip in" additional entry for those parking cars deeper into a low rise site can work.
Homes should still be connected internally through to the main front focal community entrance so
that on 'car free days' everyone is connected to the upgraded community arrival space.

1.15 Uniformity enables off-site manufacture, simplicity reduces maintenance costs, all-around access via
cherry pickers should be designed in for low rise developments and abseiling for towers. Thought to
balcony type, construction, design will keep maintenance costs down. Powder coated aluminium
windows don’t need to be tilt and turn when the cleaning strategy is communal. For low rise the
window cleaning strategy should be ‘pole and reach’ so consider set back areas.

1.16 Think interior branding, not interior design: hotels are expert at fitting out uniform rooms
‘differently’ to establish premium rates. Sanitary ware and kitchen units may be identical but
differentiate the fittings. Desirability is driven by small portable luxuries that say something about
the individual. We discuss later how dressing show units with branded accessories may well be more
important than the furniture.

1.17 Departing from Local Plan parking requirements should be negotiated. The target market is 18-35
year olds, not general needs housing (30-55 year olds and beyond). Census data reveals car
ownership for under 21s at 20%, 22-26 year olds at 34% and 37-56 year olds at 60%. Unfortunately,
these statistics do not distinguish between ‘home owners’ and ‘renters’; proximity to transport hubs
further reduces these numbers and our research both for sites over 300 homes and small sites
revealed that car parking was regarded as a ‘nice to have, not a ‘must have’.

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