Here we have Goldsmith Street, Norwich, NR2. An eco-friendly social housing project which has seen the construction of 105 brick properties on the city centre outskirts, even going on to win an award for the high quality architecture being built in the most environmentally friendly way possible. Built to the German Passivhaus standards as to ensure the optimum reduction of their ecological footprint. In making these buildings as airtight as possible whilst using ventilation systems throughout, low heating costs among other reduced billing figures offer just one positive of moving into these new homes.
Steering away from regular building standards, the boundaries were pushed as to re-imagine the way we lay out neighbourhoods and to allow more space for families to live and interact healthily. Creating rows of houseswith very easily accessible front and back garden space that is both safe and communal. A 14 meter gap across the street instead of the standard 21 meters, allows for more to be put into one space. However, as the arial view of the project shows us, taking away roads to create traffic and parking congestion, houses are build to host pathways connecting properties as well as safe park and outdoor space without being near noise and danger coming from the roadsBoth physical and mental wellbeing are hugely important aspects of every household despite who its occupants may be. The physical structure of the household will impact health and wellbeing in keeping the space, dry and livable. However, the neighbourhood environemnt and the way we structure our interactivities are hugely vital in encapsulating strong humanitarian communication and improving mental health among communities. We must pay close attentive care in modern times towards how we impact eachothers wellbeing and how can we add structure to our lives to help this. Ensuring every home uses high ceilings, has an outside garden area, as well as quieter traffic, allows every opperunity to provide residents with the nessessary community space to thrive and interact as well as the quaint privacy that we also crave so badly.
One resident of Goldsmiths pointed out the positive impact it has had on her mental health by saying “I’ve got two lovely neighbours and I feel like I want to have people round”
In a study by the European Journal of Public Health, which looked at the effects of regeneration and social cohesion on mental health and saw that it was hugely impactful. The regeneration of Goldsmiths creates an environment where residents have a very good perception of the quality of their neighbourhood and this can allow a sense of belonging to establish and reucude social disorder. Reductions of noise and traffic as well as creating safe areas for children to play reduces anxieties and makes it hugely relaxing for families to enjoy living where they are. These positive emotions will in turn effect families in schools, at work, in relation to work ethics and the general outlook of residents will be far more positive.
This approach to housing is a very new, innovative way of thinking about housing. Focusing not only on the house itself but the lifestyle and wellbeing of the residents living in them.
Now we have looked at where Norwich is headed and the potential it has, we can not ignore the fact that there is great deprivation and social instability in many areas of the city. In the least affluent areas of Norwich, 4 in 10 children live in poverty with unemployment 3 times higher than other areas and men typically living 10 years less than in the most affluent. Areas like the photo above highlight that media representation of the rejuivination projects in the city only show a very niche insight into what life is actually like in terms of development in a place like Norwich. The sugar coating of such issues desensitises our human nature to care and hold empathy towards one another, when in fact media representation of development should take a shift to humanise poverty and squalar stricken areas and create conscious flow of knowledge, informing one another not only of the ways we can help, but the sheer scale of the issue we are trying to help. The first image taken from a propaganda type article very unfairly casts aside grave problems of worsening unemployment, a slump in full time earnings as well as growing health concerns. Despite originating in the same city, these two images are used in very different ways to either promote and provide false ideals or to outline that we shouldn’t be so niave to think that what is represented in the media in the way of development is not always nessecarily correct
https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/advance-article/doi/10.1093/eurpub/ckz221/5671760#189543685
Development through the eyes of a developing mind 