Lockdown shrank many of our physical worlds to our homes and their immediate neighbourhoods. However, the roles we needed to perform there expanded. Homes became offices, classrooms and gyms. Technology filled gaps and allowed homes to become remote social spaces.
Lockdown provided a unique opportunity to stress-test our homes and their immediate environments, and to gauge whether or not they have supported our everyday needs. Exploring this was the purpose of the Home Comforts survey, conducted by the Place Alliance, a not-for-profit initiative at UCL. The survey was completed by 2,500 households across the UK during the early summer of 2020.
A key finding from this research was that the least comfortable dwellings, least supportive neighbourhoods for everyday needs, and weakest sense of community correlated directly with the age of housing.
This suggests there are critical shortcomings in how new homes and neighbourhoods are designed. Our research provides insights into how we might need to design or adapt our homes in the future to build in a greater resilience and capacity to support happy and healthy lives.
Living under lockdown
The good news is that the majority of people in our survey felt comfortable in their homes (two-thirds), satisfied with their neighbourhood (three-quarters), and experienced a bolstered sense of community during lockdown (five-sixths).
Unfortunately, this still means that significant numbers of households had a much poorer experience. One-sixth of people felt uncomfortable in their homes – and if we extrapolated our results across the whole UK, this would add up to 11 million people. Similarly, this would mean that 10 million sensed no tangible change in community feeling, and 3 million are suffering the consequences of poorly designed neighbourhoods that do not meet their basic everyday requirements.
The most recently built neighbourhoods – those constructed between 2010 and 2020 – recorded the lowest levels of satisfaction. The oldest neighbourhoods, those built before 1919, had the highest. Across all dwellings, the older the home, the more satisfied inhabitants were with their living conditions during lockdown.
Digging deeper, the survey revealed a range of critical factors – some relating to the design of homes, and some to neighbourhoods – that directly impacted on survey respondents’ sense of comfort and support. As each of these factors are more likely to be substandard in new developments, they also provide the explanation for why these residents came off worse.
Participants in our survey reported that access to private open space from the home was extremely important. Households with a private garden or terrace space were the most comfortable, followed by those with a private balcony or shared garden. Households with no access to any sort of private open space were considerably less comfortable.
Space standards were also critical, and dwellings were more comfortable the more rooms there were per occupant. Dwellings with five or more occupants were noticeably less comfortable during lockdown.
Good environmental conditions in the home, notably fresh air, daylight and good noise insulation, were widely seen as fundamental. Respondents often cited deficits in this regard, alongside a physical lack of space, as reasons why home working was challenging, particularly for social renters.
Unfortunately, as a housing design audit carried out by the Place Alliance suggested and this new survey confirms, in recent years we have let design standards drop. Too often new homes have poor internal-space standards, poor access to private open space, and are located in areas without basic amenities such as parks and shops.
Living within a five-minute walk of a park or significant green space was the strongest predictor of satisfaction with neighbourhoods during lockdown. Our respondents’ satisfaction reduced markedly the further away open space was, and significantly when it was over ten minutes away.
Another crucial factor for satisfaction with neighbourhoods was having local facilities (shops and services) within easy reach of the home. Again, satisfaction peaked when these amenities were within five minutes of respondents’ homes, and dropped away markedly over ten minutes.
As we look likely to continue to spend more time in the home environment in the future, we need to build our homes and neighbourhoods as decent places where people wish to be. We need to learn from the stress test that lockdown has given our homes to build better living environments and to retrospectively adapt those we are living in today. This means decent space and environmental standards in the home and access to private open space – even if just a balcony.
Neighbourhoods should be walkable and cyclable, with convenient access to parks and local facilities, high quality streets and public spaces. Particular care is required to balance all these needs when building neighbourhoods that are dense and high.
Kufungwa kwa nyumba kulifanya ulimwengu wetu wa kimwili ukandamize na kuwa na nyumba zetu na vitongoji vyao vya karibu. Hata hivyo, majukumu tuliyohitaji kutimiza huko yalipanuka. Nyumba zikawa ofisi, vyumba vya madarasa, na majumba ya mazoezi. Teknolojia ilijaza mapungufu na kuruhusu nyumba kuwa maeneo ya kijamii ya mbali. """Lockdown ilitoa fursa ya kipekee ya kupima nyumba zetu na mazingira yao ya karibu, na kupima ikiwa wametuunga mkono au la." Utafiti wa Home Comforts ulifanywa na Place Alliance, shirika lisilo la faida la UCL. Utafiti huo ulifanywa na familia 2,500 nchini Uingereza katika majira ya joto ya 2020. Utafiti huo ulionyesha kuwa makazi yasiyo na starehe, maeneo yasiyo na mahitaji ya kila siku, na hisia dhaifu za jamii zinahusiana moja kwa moja na umri wa nyumba. Hii inaonyesha kuna mapungufu muhimu katika jinsi nyumba mpya na vitongoji ni iliyoundwa. Utafiti wetu hutoa ufahamu juu ya jinsi tunaweza kuhitaji kubuni au kurekebisha nyumba zetu katika siku zijazo kujenga katika upinzani mkubwa na uwezo wa kusaidia maisha ya furaha na afya. Habari njema ni kwamba wengi wa watu katika utafiti wetu walijisikia vizuri katika nyumba zao (theluthi mbili), kuridhika na jirani zao (theluthi tatu), na uzoefu hisia ya jamii iliyoimarishwa wakati wa kufungwa (tano-sixths). Kwa bahati mbaya, hii bado ina maana kwamba idadi kubwa ya kaya walikuwa na uzoefu mbaya zaidi. Watu sita kati ya watu wote walijisikia vibaya nyumbani kwao, na ikiwa tungekadiria matokeo yetu kwa Uingereza nzima, hii ingekuwa watu milioni 11. "Hivyo hivyo, hii inamaanisha kuwa milioni 10 hawakuhisi mabadiliko yoyote ya kweli katika hisia za jamii, na milioni 3 wanateseka kutokana na matokeo ya vitongoji vilivyopangwa vibaya ambavyo havijakidhi mahitaji yao ya msingi ya kila siku. """ Majirani waliojengwa hivi karibuni - wale waliojengwa kati ya 2010 na 2020 - walirekodi viwango vya chini vya kuridhika. Majengo ya zamani zaidi, yaliyojengwa kabla ya mwaka wa 1919, yalikuwa na viwango vya juu zaidi. Katika nyumba zote, nyumba ilipozeeka, wakazi walioridhika zaidi na hali zao za kuishi wakati wa kufungwa. Kuchimba kina zaidi, utafiti ulifunua safu ya mambo muhimu - baadhi yanayohusiana na muundo wa nyumba, na baadhi ya vitongoji - ambayo yaliathiri moja kwa moja hisia ya waulizaji wa utafiti wa faraja na msaada. Kwa kuwa kila moja ya mambo haya ni uwezekano mkubwa wa kuwa chini ya kiwango katika maendeleo mapya, pia kutoa maelezo kwa nini wakazi hawa alikuja chini. Washiriki katika utafiti wetu waliripoti kuwa upatikanaji wa nafasi ya wazi ya kibinafsi kutoka nyumbani ilikuwa muhimu sana. Nyumba zenye bustani au uwanja wa kibinafsi zilikuwa zenye starehe zaidi, zikifuatwa na zile zenye balcony ya kibinafsi au bustani ya pamoja. Nyumba zisizo na nafasi ya faragha hazikuwa zenye starehe sana. Viwango vya nafasi vilikuwa pia muhimu, na nyumba zilikuwa zenye starehe zaidi kadiri zilivyokuwa na vyumba vingi kwa kila mkaaji. Nyumba zenye watu watano au zaidi zilikuwa na hali mbaya sana wakati wa kufungwa. Hali nzuri ya mazingira katika nyumba, hasa hewa safi, mwanga wa mchana na insulation nzuri ya kelele, zilionekana kwa ujumla kuwa muhimu. Wahoji mara nyingi walitaja upungufu katika suala hili, pamoja na ukosefu wa nafasi ya kimwili, kama sababu kwa nini kufanya kazi nyumbani ilikuwa changamoto, hasa kwa wapangaji wa kijamii. Kwa bahati mbaya, kama ukaguzi wa muundo wa makazi uliofanywa na Place Alliance ulivyopendekeza na uchunguzi huu mpya unathibitisha, katika miaka ya hivi karibuni tumeruhusu viwango vya muundo kushuka. Mara nyingi nyumba mpya zina viwango vya chini vya nafasi ya ndani, upatikanaji duni wa nafasi ya wazi ya kibinafsi, na ziko katika maeneo bila vifaa vya msingi kama vile mbuga na maduka. Kuishi ndani ya dakika tano kutembea kutoka bustani au nafasi kubwa ya kijani ilikuwa kiashiria cha nguvu cha kuridhika na vitongoji wakati wa kufungwa. Kuridhika kwa waliohojiwa wetu ilipungua sana mbali zaidi nafasi ya wazi ilikuwa, na kwa kiasi kikubwa wakati ilikuwa zaidi ya dakika kumi mbali. Sababu nyingine muhimu ya kuridhika na vitongoji ilikuwa kuwa na vifaa vya mitaa (duka na huduma) ndani ya urahisi wa nyumba. Kwa mara nyingine tena, kuridhika kulifikia kilele wakati vifaa hivi vilipokuwa ndani ya dakika tano za nyumba za waliohojiwa, na kupungua kwa kiasi kikubwa zaidi ya dakika kumi. """Kwa kuwa tunaonekana kuendelea kutumia muda mwingi katika mazingira ya nyumbani katika siku zijazo, tunahitaji kujenga nyumba zetu na vitongoji kama maeneo mazuri ambapo watu wanataka kuwa." """Tunahitaji kujifunza kutoka kwa mtihani wa mkazo ambao kufungwa kwa nyumba zetu kumetoa kujenga mazingira bora ya kuishi na kurekebisha yale tunayoishi leo." Hii ina maana nafasi nzuri na viwango vya mazingira katika nyumba na upatikanaji wa nafasi ya wazi binafsi <unk> hata kama tu balcony. Majirani wanapaswa kuwa walikwenda na baiskeli, na upatikanaji rahisi wa mbuga na vifaa vya mitaa, barabara za ubora wa juu na nafasi za umma. Uangalifu maalum unahitajika ili kusawazisha mahitaji haya yote wakati wa kujenga vitongoji ambavyo ni vingi na vya juu.