Abstract

In this paper, we explore how London residents understand, live, and experience their dwellings. Growing evidence shows that existing housing stock in the UK performs poorly in terms of functionality and flexibility. Policy and planning debates focus on the potential benefits of introducing standards for dwelling size while engaging less with broader questions of how to develop standards. Drawing on an online survey (n = 234) and in-depth interviews (n = 22) concerned with experiences of housing, we explore Londoners’ understandings of housing design sufficiency. Our findings show that experiences of dwellings, and understandings of those dwellings as sufficient for occupants’ needs, vary by household type and dwelling occupancy patterns. Moreover, social constructions of dwelling sufficiency are related not only to the size of dwellings, as often described and conceptualised by housing authorities in the UK, but also to the type, form, and layout of rooms. We further show that stay-at-home restrictions imposed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic challenged understandings of dwelling size and dwelling sufficiency. This prompts a discussion of the assumptions made in UK housing design regarding dwelling use, dwelling users, and future housing.

摘要

在本文中，我们探讨了伦敦居民如何理解、生活和体验他们的住所。越来越多的证据表明，英国现有的住房存量在功能性和灵活性方面表现不佳。政策和规划辩论的重点是引入住宅面积标准的潜在好处，而较少涉及如何制定标准等更广泛的问题。利用在线调查 ( n  = 234) 和深度访谈 ( n = 22) 关注住房体验，我们探索伦敦人对住房设计充足性的理解。我们的研究结果表明，住宅体验以及对这些住宅足以满足居住者需求的理解因家庭类型和住宅入住模式而异。此外，住房自给自足的社会结构不仅与英国住房当局经常描述和概念化的住房大小有关，还与房间的类型、形式和布局有关。我们进一步表明，为应对 Covid-19 大流行而实施的居家限制挑战了对住宅面积和住宅充足率的理解。这引发了对英国住房设计中关于住宅用途、住宅用户和未来住房的假设的讨论。