Back to Back-to-Back? A Case for Street Based Density Part 1 Dissertation 2024 Arthur Connolly University of the West of England | UK The climate and housing crises are the defining issues of our society’s age. We can no longer continue to build on what little natural habitats we have left, yet neither should we compromise the right of all our citizens to secure and healthy homes. We need new ways to densify our cities that make them more vibrant and equitable in the process.This dissertation seeks to understand the potential of the Victorian back-to-back housing typology to be reintroduced as a common choice for new social housing on brownfield sites in English cities. The type provided rapidly industrialising cities in the midlands and the north of England with the ultimate high-density housing, yet they were notoriously linked with ill-health and poverty.Through historical analysis and contemporary analysis of an exemplary case study, McGrath Road, it seeks to illuminate the possibilities of the back-to-back to adapt to contemporary needs. It will explore how this type can offer street-based, high-density social housing that works with the grain of our cities to create attractive, sociable and healthy neighbourhoods. Tutor(s)Ms Ann de Graft-Johnson