11 May 2014
To mark the end of the 2014 Custom & Self Build Week, the National Self Build Association (NaSBA) and Grand Designs Live have teamed up to launch an ideas competition to seek out innovative solutions to the challenge of building 20 low cost easy-to-build homes for a typical site in an urban situation.
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The ‘Self Build on a Shoestring in the City’ competition is being sponsored by British Gas and the top entrants will win a £5,000 prize. Launching the competition at Grand Designs Live today, NaSBA Chair Ted Stevens said: “Some people think that building a home for yourself is only for the wealthy. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Self build can be particularly cost effective when a number of households collaborate to build individual homes on a single site. As well as allowing common overheads to be shared, collaborative self build can also help foster strong neighbourly relations.This unique ideas competition is about designing an innovative complex of ‘self build friendly’ homes on a typical urban site. The competition is being run to prove that it is possible to build low cost homes in the City, and that they can also be a very attractive and sustainable too”.
The 20 homes have to be built for an average cost of no more than £75,000 each. And all entrants have to include a detailed report that sets out exactly what their 20 homes would cost to construct, along with a statement that explains how a group of people would be assembled and involved ion the design and delivery process for their new homes.
The judges for the competition are expected to include Richard Bacon MP (who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on self/custom build), and a number of other leading experts including Grand Designs’ Kevin McCloud and Tom Dyckhoff, from the BBC’s Culture Show.
A full Brief for the competition can be downloaded from NaSBA’s website, and the deadline for submissions is 19 September 2014. The winner will be announced at the Grand Designs Live Exhibition at the NEC in October.
In 2013 a similar competition was run by NaSBA and the 16 best entries for this can all be inspected on the website too.
