From housing mix to social mix - housing's contribution to social sustainability

摘要

Sustainable communities! from jaded estate to faded neighbourhood, from new-build scheme to regeneration project; sustainable community is the goal to which we all aspire. But what does it mean; where has it come from; how do we do it; and how will we know when we have achieved it? These are not new questions. Consider this claim from the 1930s: 'The New Estate is not merely a street of houses or a collection of streets of houses; it is a unit of social life.' O, that we had cracked it then so we can learn the lessons now. It's almost as if, by an act of collective amnesia, we've chosen to ignore the preoccupation with making 'communities' which rose with the first garden city and fell with the last of the new towns - over 30 years ago. So now we're at it again, balancing and mixing, steering and engineering, this time to create 'sustainable communities'. So let's take stock and consider what it is we're trying to achieve and, helped by some recent evaluations, what might be achievable.