From hutch to headroom
According to the Venice Architecture Biennale
we are living in “rabbit-hutch Britain”. New homes in the UK
are the most cramped in western Europe; almost every other country
provides its citizens with more living space.
But now it’s buy buy Bugs. That’s all,
Thumper. And Roger, over and out. Because Friendship Care and
Housing is developing homes considerably larger than usual space
standards.
Friendship recently completed a scheme of 11
properties at Anthony Road, Alum Rock. The average house size
is 107 square metres, although there are properties of up to 168
square metres, suitable for eight people. This compares to a
UK average of 76 square metres.
The homes will meet the needs o predominately
Asian families. Jonathan Driffill, Friendship’s managing
director said: “The choice for the Asian community is to buy old
Victorian terraced houses where the cost of upkeep is clearly going
to be very high. So our properties are good examples of
distinctively large properties being built in the affordable
housing sector for their space needs with modern insulation
standards.”
Four of the families who moved into Anthony
Street had been staying in temporary accommodation, as their
previous homes had been demolished. Friendship involved the
customers in the design of their new properties, so the designs are
truly bespoke to their needs. This included extra rooms to
accommodate religious belief segregation and fitting low-level taps
to allow a family to wash their feet before prayer.
So whilst there may still be ‘hutch housing’
in the UK, there are also great examples of affordable development
that provide plenty of headroom.
Please click on the images to enlarge