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September 2016
We need to encourage innovative new models that can fulfil the full social, economic and environment impact housing can have. There are many different aspects to housing; I am going to focus on beauty, self-building, governance and flexibility.
Beauty is not a luxury; it should be mandatory for future housing. Houses and architecture are long-term art forms. They cannot easily be rubbed out and people have to live with them. Most people aspire to buy their own home one day. Housing should be beautiful, functional and sustainable. This is possible, but we don’t.
Our fifth birthday trip to Copenhagen and Malmö convinced me it is possible to build beautiful homes. BO01 in Malmö is just but one example of government-led development. The first phase was built in 2005, having been planned in the late 20th century. The development was built as a part of housing exhibition to show the future of housing. The City of Malmö was able to negotiate with construction companies to demand a higher quality. Overall the scheme built on brownfield land, provides high-density, high-quality homes for all stages of life, connected through well-designed public realm. It does everything right.
Can we let people build their own houses? If you were building a house for yourself you’d tailor it to suit your needs, prioritising features like insulation to increase energy efficiency and keep your heating bills down, as well as trying to keep the building costs down. We could all live in better, more sustainable and cheaper houses, whilst at the same time immersing ourselves into the neighbourhood and learning new skills. Wikihouse is just one example of a way to build your own house. Technological advancement means anyone can download full housing files, find a printer and then erect the houses themselves. It’s enabling a new wave of self-builders.
My mum recently told me about her ideal home. Her and my Dad are left with empty, underused bedrooms now that my brother and I have flown the nest. She wants a flexible house: one where the four exterior walls remain static, as do the floors, but the walls within can move. She could therefore adapt her home to suit her and my Dad and change it when they have visitors. Genius, eh?
The home is people’s most expensive and arguably most significant asset, together with a central feature of our built environment; it’s our responsibility as designers to make them as good as they can possibly be. We don’t have to stick to the status quo; we need to start building houses that truly suit the needs of the user.
Node is highly experienced in residential masterplanning and designing detailed landscapes for residential areas. Please see our project experience for further details.
