More thoughts on St Mary's Island

Abstract

It is good to see innovations in housing design being applied to the private sector; the ultimate test of any new idea is that someone should want to invest in it. All too often in the past any experimentation in housing design was mainly confined to the public sector. Lack of ‘market testing’ was one of the main reasons why brave experiments sometimes went horribly wrong. All through those years of experimentation, between say 1955 and 1975, with the exception of Eric Lyons' Span housing, architects found fertile ground in public sector – local authority – commissions. It is only now, with loads of government encouragement, that major developers are beginning to sponsor new ideas in design, in higher density, ‘joined up’ housing.