"A Bloody Nice Place to Live..."
The SPAN housing initiative, co-founded by architect Eric Lyons and developers Geoffrey Townsend and Leslie Bilsby in 1948, was a move to work against 'Subtopia', spanning the gap between suburban monotony of post-war high rises and the one-off architectural residences (Whitlock, 2013). Between 1948 and 1969 more than 2,100 SPAN homes were built in 73 developments, typically made up of small numbers of housing and low-rise flats built around shared green spaces. The ethos behind SPAN was to integrate housing into contemporary society, with the aim being to create a community through the use of landscape (Casciani, 2006). Eric Lyons paid particular attention to the surrounding landscape, designing around and integrating elements of the existing site, for instance trees, so that once complete the development would feel grounded and mature.
The community theme extended from the house and into the garden. Interior spaces were light and spacious, blurring the edges between inside and outside through the use of large windows looking out onto private gardens and communal courtyards (SPAN, 1960). As opposed to allocating parking outside of each dwelling, Lyons designed the sites with parking a short walk away, allowing for additional public green space whilst also encouraging social interactions between residents (Casciani, 2006).
The SPAN developments were very successful in creating a valued community feel. Leslie Bilsby talked about catering for the family, from the children to the grandparents, which resulted in the developments prompting numerous different people of varying ages to buy a SPAN house. Even today, these houses are sought after as they differ significantly from the bland modern day housing schemes. The main difference of the SPAN developments is the attention to the landscape. Clustering houses around green space as opposed to lining them up in long streets, creates a heart, a central area everyone looks into bounded by the houses.
References:
Barrett, C (2005) Spanning the years. Grand Designs. March 2005. pp.61-64 [pdf] Available from: http://www.fieldend.com/home/history [Accessed 2nd October 2015]
Casciani, B (2006) A house like no other. [online] Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6129968.stm [Accessed 2nd October 2015]
Ellard, P (n.d) SPAN Kent [online] Availble from: http://www.span-kent.co.uk [Accessed 3rd October 2015]
SPAN (1960) SPAN - Living with new ideas. [pdf] Available from: http://www.fieldend.com/home/history [Accessed 2nd October 2015]
Whitlock, R (2013) Corner Green, Blackheath [online] Available from: http://www.c20society.org.uk/botm/corner-green-blackheath/ [Accessed 3rd October 2015]