Here and There

Living with Beauty is the final report of the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission; an independent body set up to “advise government on how to promote and increase the use of high-quality design for new build homes and neighbourhoods”. Personally, I thought “Living with Beauty” sounded like a semi-fictional memoir about sharing an apartment with a drag queen (named Beauty) in 1980’s New York. I don’t think this a view shared by many and is likely due to the speed with which I consumed the Netflix show “POSE” rather than any flaw in the Commission’s report titling. What’s good about it? Title notwithstanding, the report sets out many positive and diverse ideas about how to improve the design of new development in the UK. Interestingly a lot of the recommendations in the report are far more structural than they are aesthetic. So, it does talk about introducing design codes at both national and local level, but it also talks about stewardship, land value capture and a gre...