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The Greater London Authority is considering increasing the amount of family housing incorporated into new housing schemes in the capital, to counter the shortage emerging as schemes focus on high-density small apartments. It will ultimately fall to architects to turn the mayor's statistic into a liveable solution. PRP Architects chairman Barry Munday says: "The mayor's target is only achievable if we think seriously of what sort of units are suitable for families.鈥�

PRP Architects has held an internal design competition that asked its staff to come up with family accommodation, ranging from one-bed units to five-bed units, for a city block site. The conclusions of the competition were revealing. Munday said: "Designing for families at high densities does require a different approach and there are real difficulties of mixing tenure and the effects on value and management."

In design terms, the competition showed there was a need to:

• maximise private external space
• provide shared amenities, either in the form of landscaped space or facilities for mothers and toddlers
• provide more storage space
• build in flexibility in the uses of the building.

First prize in the competition went to staff members, Claire Cameron, Cormac Browne and Nicola Mountford, for a scheme (shown above) comprising a block/apartments divided into zones: a flexizone (for potential storage), a service zone (containing kitchens and bathrooms), the habzone (containing living accommodation) and the gardenzone (outdoor space). Having explored the issues through the competition, PRP Architects is now planning to present some of the shortlisted ideas to its clients.