Housing is in a global crisis. This is in large part due to a neoliberal shift in housing policy globally since the 1980s. The UK has been at the vanguard of this 40 year neoliberal housing experiment, and is in a state of emergency. There is a dire shortage of affordable places to live and the current process of delivering housing results in substandard homes that at their worst, are life threatening to the occupants. To study the UK from an EU point of view is to look into a possible near future of deeper crisis, and to understand what is to be avoided.

The new UK government has made building 1.5 million new homes part of their recent election manifesto however little has been said about how they will be delivered, and even less has been said about what ideology will drive the formation of new towns, districts and homes. There is a vacuum, and around it sits a decades old failed housing system as the starting point for the future. 

Building 1.5 million homes through the current UK methods of delivery will result in the vast consumption of carbon and land. The design of the homes will repeat the same dysfunctional processes that have resulted in homes that dangerously overheat, are profoundly inflexible, and target social separation while the country is suffering from crises in mental health, loneliness, and social care.

In the light of multiple overlapping emergencies, a new architecture of the home is needed.

What is a home that performs thermally, socially and environmentally? How should homes be funded and where should they be built? What does the government need to recognise before it is too late?

We will look beyond typology and function to the material conditions of social relations, elements as resources, time, and recognition of a planet as a home. We will look at how the design of homes makes the design of the city. We will look at themes of care, and maintenance. We will unpick and rebuild regulations, design standards, legal structures and development processes. We will try to understand how the UK came to be in the mess that it is in, to imagine better how to fix it. 

We will be teaching in and making connections with KSA London architecture school and plan to visit London as part of the design studio.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/16/britain-new-builds-homes-future-labour