NaCSBA launches 2017 ideas competition to create a low cost retirement community or granny annex
06 May 2017
NaCSBA thinks it’s about time we saw more projects like this happening in the UK. So this year’s Self Build on a Shoestring competition – launched in association with Grand Designs Live – challenges designers to devise an innovative housing for the elderly, and the winner will receive £5,000 from Grand Designs Live.
The individual homes must be constructed for less than £40,000, or the whole community of 30 homes – which must also include a range of shared/community facilities – has a maximum budget of £1.5m.
Three of the UK’s top TV presenters have agreed to be Judges for this year’s ‘Shoestring’ competition including George Clarke, Piers Taylor and Charlie Luxton. Other judges include design and self build experts and the consultant who helped set up the first project like this in the UK (the ‘New Ground’ scheme in North London, which opened this year and provides 22 new homes for single elderly women).
NaCSBA Chair Michael Holmes said: “We want to capitalise on the growing interest in new forms of housing for the elderly – especially homes that are simple and cost effective to build, and where the residents have a real say in the design, layout and range of facilities. Developments like this help older people to remain more active, they avoid loneliness and, in the end, they reduce the need for costly social care.”
“We also think there is a growing market for a cost effective standalone ‘granny annexe’, that can be tailored to suit each resident’s needs, ordered online, craned into someone’s garden and linked to an existing house.”
Anyone can enter the competition – architects, designers, modular construction specialists, timber framing experts, custom build developers, innovation or technical gurus, or members of the public.
For more details and a full brief click here
