Don’t do anything you don’t need to if it would make assembly more complicated. Use the smallest number of unique blocks and assembly procedures as possible, minimise working at height and avoid the use of permanent scaffolding if possible.
Use well-loved, time-tested, human-centered design patterns. Many of these are traditional (such as window seats, gable roofs), but many are not (stairs for sitting on, cycle lanes). This includes, for example, most of the patterns in A Pattern Language. If done right, style won’t matter. People should find it hard to classify a project as either entirely ‘modernist’ or ‘traditionalist’.
A good rule of thumb is ‘traditional patterns, contemporary execution’. (Imagine if Apple built National Trust properties).
Avoid using large, flat textureless surfaces (such as flat cladding panels) that make buildings look ‘prefabricated’. Instead use materials with fine grain textures, such as timber cladding, shingles, standing seam, corrugations or painted render.
At the beginning of the project, the first thing to do is look at the vernacular style of the surrounding neighbourhood (especially any pre-modern vernaculars or buildings that are well loved). Unless you can do it perfectly, do not attempt to mimic their precise appearance, but rather look for and adopt the best patterns (and colours) that are generic. If done right, the new building should make people see the older buildings in a new, favourable light.
Because they offer maximum daylight and ventilation per glazing area, and because humans are predisposed towards vertical things. (They’re also friendlier on the inside at night)
(Not just leftover space around the buildings. This often includes using connecting walls to frame spaces (like walled gardens), and decks to blend between the buildings and the ground.
For example, never have a ground floor room with windows but no way of getting out. Let people feel connected to outside. On upper floors use roof terraces or juliet balconies. Any bed could be a sick bed, and should therefore have a view of greenery or trees if possible. Make homes that would feel like nice places to live during another lockdown.
Add a psychological buffer zone between public and private. Even a thin strip of defensible space or a space for plant pots says ‘this place is mine and it is loved.’ Spaces used by the whole community should feel passively overlooked. If a communal space is unlikely to be occupied or used, it should probably be a private garden.
Using plants, ground surfaces and other markers to create buffer zones is usually better than a wall or a fence.