Baca Architects’ floating houses on London’s waterways
The 10 winners of an ideas contest, run by the mayor of London and New London to find innovative ideas to solve London’s housing crisis, have been revealed.
Named New Ideas for Housing London, the contest attracted over 200 entries from more than 20 countries from around the world. The 10 winning ideas focused mainly on rethinking the financing, planning and policy mechanism behind the delivery of homes, rather than construction methods or innovations.
The ideas will be presented to the Greater London Authority, which will study their feasibility as options for the future of the London housing market.
Richard Blakeway, deputy mayor for housing, land and property, said: “We asked for innovative and ambitious ideas, and we were certainly not disappointed. The range and sheer number of well-considered and imaginative entries was truly impressive. Some ideas were eye-catchingly radical, such as a floating neighbourhood transforming sites on the Thames. Others were simple yet brilliant, such as redefining the index of public transport accessibility (PTAL).
“Without a doubt, the entries showcase some exciting ways to challenge the traditional approach to house building and we look forward to pursuing the ideas set out by winning entries in discussions here at City Hall.”
dRMM’s timber shell
dRMM Architects was the only winning idea that proposed a new construction method. Similar to self-build homes, it proposed building structural, weatherproof, thermally- and acoustically-insulated timber shells that are “ready to camp in” (pictured right). The user can then partition and fit-out the house however they want.
But most of the winning ideas focused not on releasing more land for development, including an interesting proposal come from the ATAL “Active Transport Accessibility Level” team, which wants to see the London Plan revised so that housing density across London is no longer based on the area’s Public Transport Accessibility Level (PTAL).
This is a scoring system, developed in 1992, that grades any location on a 0 to 6 scale according to its transport links.
The ATAL group believes that the current scoring system has created large swathes of London where higher densities cannot be realised. If City Hall designated “ATAL Opportunity Areas” where local authorities could offer planning incentives to developers while also improving walking and cycling infrastructure, then density of these areas in London could be greatly increased.
David Kroll’s solution involves renting the land
Separating the cost of land from the cost of a house was the theme of several of the winning entries. A proposal from architectural historian David Kroll, “Investing in London’s Future by Learning from its Past”, envisages land under public ownership being developed while remaining in public hands.
Only the planning and construction of the buildings is privately contracted out, meaning the leasehold to the houses or flats can then be sold for the amount that it actually costs to develop and build them.
Architect Pitman Tozer’s Naked House follows a similar theme, arguing that a not-for-profit housing provider could unlock small, under-used council-owned sites throughout the capital.
Pitman Tozer’s Naked House
To ensure the provision of permanently affordable housing a resale covenant would limit sale value, while ground rent linked to the value of the land means any uplift in value is shared.
The architect believes this could provide as many as 110,000 fully-affordable customisable homes by 2025.
Patrick J A Massey of architect CZWG proposes that each London borough would commission a team of planners and architects to produce a strategic report, identifying desirable sites for development, but also produce a set of schematic annotated drawings for each site.
For prospective developers, this would mean that the site has already effectively had an outline planning analysis, reducing the risk of not obtaining planning permission and acting as a catalyst for development.
GL Hearn proposes building on “edge” land
Property consultant GL Hearn proposes building on “edge” land, the inner belt running from the inner London greenbelt to the M25, to meet the shortfall in housing.
Housing architect HTA Design, meanwhile, believes that intensifying London’s suburbs by allowing occupiers of semi-detached homes to develop their land could help solve the housing crisis.
The other winners were Natasha Reid of Natasha Reid Design, who proposes building purpose-built shared housing to meet the demand of private renters in the immediate term, WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff’s proposal to develop housing above public buildings such as hospitals, schools and libraries, and Baca Architects’ proposal to develop floating houses on London’s waterways.
Peter Murray, chairman of the NLA added: “The way we are delivering new homes today just isn’t working. London is only able to build half the number it needs each year. This competition shows how a bit of creativity, entrepreneurship and new thinking can help to fill that gap.”
Natasha Reid’s purpose-built shared housing
