Research: Future Living Spaces

Date posted: November 10, 2016

At ArchitecturePLB we have been working with several clients to explore solutions that provide living spaces more attuned to the specific needs of those trying to get on the housing ladder, and those stepping down from larger dwelling and looking for something more manageable.

An important personal space for all of us is undoubtedly our home, a place to make our own in a wider neighbourhood of friends and family. But housing is in short supply, with an estimated 300,000 new homes required each year – far outstripping the supply, or indeed the land available to build them.

Much of the limited supply is in traditional format, single houses that are land hungry and aimed at a very broad market. There is a growing need for alternatives that provide a more diverse offer, creating more efficient, affordable homes that naturally knit together in close neighbourhoods that make best use of limited sites.

Our starter homes are designed to be economic, both in construction and in use. By adopting a back-to-back layout they drastically reduce construction cost and naturally conserve energy, with each house providing a one bedroom unit of around 50sqm, with its own front door, private courtyard garden and parking.

The downsizer units were designed with a focus group drawn from prospective tenants. The city centre apartments will be surrounded by all the services and facilities that keep us active and engaged, and each has flexible living/sleeping space, dual aspect, clutter free walls, plenty of storage space and generous balconies adjacent living spaces.

We have also explored multi-generational housing that combines such dwellings with family units to accommodate extended families, in discreetly separate units under one roof. This has obvious social and financial advantages whist still providing those personal spaces that go to make our homes.