WINNING SOLUTIONS TO THE HOUSING SHORTAGE?
We should be well aware that there is a shortage of housing in the UK and with the population expected to rise by almost 10 million in the next 25 years the need to act now is becoming all the more apparent. It is claimed by Shelter that we need to be building an extra 250,000 homes each year to keep up with the rising population and the dilapidation of old buildings. Further to providing basic living accommodation to the increasing population, Shelter also states that we need to build more housing in order to cope with the rising cost of residential property and ‘limit further dramatic rises in housing costs’.
In a bid to support the building of new housing, New London Architecture ran a competition last year encouraging architects to come up with solutions to the shortage of housing. The competition saw entries from some of the most talented architects across the globe and created a shortlist of 100 designs. Fully supported by The Mayor of London, the competition brought such a variance of ideas to solve the problem that it would seem that at least some will be seriously considered as viable options.
From floating homes to rooftop dwellings, 10 winners were eventually selected and I have to say that the creativity in these ideas is incredible. Some finalists demonstrate more practical ideas whilst others have really pushed the line on how we build residential property at the moment…
One of the more radical of the 10 finalists was the ‘Wood Blocks Design’ by London studio dRMM Architects. ‘Wood Blocks’ was positioned as a ‘ready to camp in shell and core housing typology’. The design promoted self-building by providing a thermally and acoustically insulated shell where owners could ‘complete’ the build and interior fit out themselves. dRMM claim that this solution could redule construction costs by up to 40% and decrease the time it takes to build a dwelling by up to a quarter!
A simpler and perhaps more practical idea came from Patrick Massey in the form of the Urban Darning Project, where he proposed that we make full use of the ‘gaps’ within our urban landscape through infill housing. Patrick noted the vast amount of ‘space’ to fill within previously developed areas and proposed that small residential developments were created within each of these sites throughout the city of London – controlled and run by each borough. It has been estimated (by Bill Price's Housing Over Public Assets ) that there is room for approximately 630,000 new homes above various council owned buildings including; libraries, hospitals, schools and fire stations.
The full list is an interesting read and whatever decision is made by our government on how to tackle this serious and urgent issue, I strongly commend the competition entrants for their innovative and boundary pushing ideas. It is encouraging to know that we have such talented people working within our industry and that there is such creativity within the minds of our architects. Although I am hugely passionate about restoration, I am excited to see where the future of construction goes and to (hopefully) witness some of these new ideas come to life.
