7 October 2014
Six talented designers have been shortlisted in the 2014 Self Build on a Shoestring (in the City) ideas competition. The overall winner will be revealed and presented with their £5,000 prize by Kevin McCloud at the Grand Designs Live exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham this Thursday (9 October).
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The competition challenged architects, designers and others to come up with innovative ways of building a range of different sized low cost easy-to-construct homes on a typical urban site.
On average the homes had to be buildable for less than £75,000 each. And the competition brief called for solutions that looked good and performed well on the environmental front.
More than 30 entries were received from the UK and abroad. The six finalists are:
Levitt Bernstein, Circle Anglia, Naked House collaboration. This collaboration’s timber-framed solution provides a basic ‘shell’ that self builders can finish off themselves. It’s also designed so that the homes can be easily extended. 24 homes are included on the site at an average cost of £70,076.
Newcastle-based architect Alston Murphy Associates. Alston Murphy arranged its homes in terraces, and developed a simple and very flexible timber modular panel system to construct them. The average cost of each home is calculated to be just £57,410.
Craig More of London-based MORE Design. Craig split the construction of the homes into two elements – a structural concrete frame/floor is firstly built by a contractor, and then the self builders then fit out the individual flats. He estimated the cost at an average of £73,273 per home.
Meredith Bowles of Cambridge-based Mole Architects. A similar idea was employed here with a contractor doing the foundations, concrete frame and roof – the self-builders then finishing their own homes in a diverse way, to match their own needs/passions. He calculated the average cost at £69,181 per home.
Jon Broome of London-based John Broome Architects. This design provided 20 adaptable split-level eco homes in two blocks along the street frontage, creating a large south facing shared garden behind. Other communal facilities and workspaces where also included. Mr Broome says the average cost per home would be £67,100.
Anna Hope of Bristol-based self build/community housing consultancy Ecomotive. Anna and her colleagues devised a timber framed modular solution that provides energy efficiency and lots of choice. This entry was very strong on community development and training, and the average cost per home was £71,391.
The competition has been organised by the National Custom and Self Build Association (NaCSBA) and Grand Designs Live and the prize fund has been generously sponsored by British Gas.
The judges included Kevin McCloud and the chair of the All Party Parliamentary Committee on self/custom build – Richard Bacon MP.
