New "Lifetime Homes" standards in the U.K., which are designed to accommodate people at all stages of life, will lead away from ultra-small flats to larger apartments, says Builder Magazine.
The housing crisis has caused a significant decrease in single-family home development in the U.K. and in increase in tiny apartments. But new standards could actually decrease density.
"The Lifetime Homes standard, which comes into effect nationally in 2013 for private housing, 2011 for social housing, and is already a planning requirement of some local authorities, broadly sets out rules for space and bathroom facilities to make homes easily adapted for people with mobility problems. In London, a new space standard has been proposed by the mayor for publicly funded housing from 2011. This states that flats cannot be smaller than 50m2, which would rule out some of the designs built in recent years."
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