The company was set up in 1999 to replace the Royal Institute of British Architects' Housing Group as a voice for design in the residential sector. At first it was called Architects in Housing but changed name to Design for Homes to reflect that it was no longer an organisation solely for architects.
Design for Homes exists to facilitate improvements in design practice. We works in partnership with the House Builders Federation, the NHBC, the Housing Forum, the Building Research Establishment, the Civic Trust and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has an observer role at Design for Homes board meetings.
Design for Homes assists RIBA on its housing programme and outputs; our Chairman and Deputy Chairman serve as RIBA's Housing Policy Adviser and Deputy.
Yolande joined Savills in 1989 as Head of Residential Research, was made a Divisional Director in 1994. She is now accountable for all Savills research departments and heads up the Land and Mixed Development department.
David was a journalist before joining Design for Homes as its first CEO in 2000. He set out to transform shelves of design advice into easy-to-use tools, in keeping with the organisation's aim to spread design awareness to operational level. In 2002 he wrote the Building for Life matrix for CABE and the Home Buiilders Federation which compressed a set of publications into a 20-question audit. The BFL audit is now the government's core assessment tool for amenity, both public and private in housebuilding. On the back of BFL, David joined Dublin's OMP and McCabe Durney to produce Ireland's pre-application assessment tool (which he says works better than BFL).
David created the "Car Parking: What works where manual" in partnership with English Partnership's urban design policy manager Kevin McGeough. He has been the rapporteur for the government's Housing Design Awards since 2004, producing the Housing Design Awards books and, since 2007, an accompanying programme of films on DVD. David was a judge in John Prescott's Design for Manufacture "60k house construction" competition, as well as the Carbon Challenge. In 2006, he edited and published the Superdensity report and set up the swingacat website with the support of Gentoo Group to promote consumer awareness of size and plan in all housing. In 2008, working with Levitt Bernstein's Julia Parkes and David Levitt (a DFH director), he created "High Density Design for Quality and Low Mainenance", a design risk assessment for the Northern Ireland Housing Executive.
David has sat on the board of the Housing Forum since 2004.
Management and Marketing Consultant Marketing Sense
Chris has 40 years' experience in the inception, procurement and delivery of major regeneration/social housing projects via stock transfer, joint funding and community involvement at senior levels as a ‘Regeneration Trouble-shooter' for major London Authorities, a Housing Action Trust and RSLs.
He has wide experience as a Board and Committee member for several RSLs and professional bodies; was a member of the RIBA Housing Forum from 1995-99 and has been a Director of Design for Homes from inception in 1999 to date. Was President of the Society of Chief Architects in Local Authorities (SCALA) from 1998-99.
Richard is Partner at Macreanor Lavington Architects which he established with Gerard Maccreanor in 1992. Richard has taught at the Canterbury School of Architecture, teh University of Nottingham, Bath University, The Mackintosh School of Architecture and Queens University, Belfast. Richard was on the jury for Europan 4, the Urban Design Alliance and has served as a consultant architectural assessor to the Arts Council of England Lottery Fund. He was a board and jury member for the Housing Design Awards and is a CABE enabler. He also sits on the SEEDA design panel.
David Levitt MA RIBA OBE co-founded Levitt Bernstein in 1968. At the same time the two founding partners started what is now one of the largest charitable housing associations in south-east England. As the practice has grown to over 100 people the scope of its work has necessarily increased to include urban design and major regeneration projects as well as every kind of housing. From the commission in 1972 to design the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester the practice has had a constant programme of buildings for the arts, most recently the restoration of St Luke's Old Street, the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds and the Colston Hall in Bristol.
Apart from being a working director David Levitt has been involved in research on housing policy and standards throughout that period and for several years has been engaged in research on the topics of housing families in very high density urban situations. He is currently ‘design champion' on the board of Catalyst Housing Group, a board member of Design for Homes, a member of the CABE Enabling Panel, and chairman of the RIBA Housing Group.
Director, Broadway Malyan Architects, David has helped build Broadway Malyan's capability across a wide variety of building types and sectors, focusing particularly on the broader issues relating to housing. He leads our development of sustainable community regeneration/neighborhood renewal and masterplanning.
Stephen Mullin is an architect and housing consultant who worked for Cedric Price from 1964 to 1970 on numerous projects, including the Fun Palace and Potteries Thinkbelt; later taught at the Bartlett and the Architectural Association schools of architecture, and then formulated the Estate Action Programme for Islington Council in the mid-1970s. He is a CABE design review panelist; acted as Rapporteur for the Housing Design Awards from 1993 to 2004, and is a co-author of ‘Non-Traditional Houses’, a distillation of the research programme for which he was responsible during his 16 years with the Housing Directorate of the DoE and its successors.
Chairman of PRP Architects, one of Europe's largest housing design practices where he has worked for the past 30 years and a Board Member of The Housing Forum
Richard helped establish Design for Homes from 2000-2008, delivering national conferences, awards ceremonies, published research, urban design training, international tours, Building for Life assessments and websites. He has an MSc in Urban Design and Regeneration and is a lead assessor for the Building for Life Awards.
From 2007 he produced and directed the series of educational films about the built environment for Design for Homes. In 2008 he set up his own company producing a range of educational and promotional films, alongside built environment work including scheme research and planning consultancy. He lives in London and Athens.
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