It's taken eighteen months of work and a year of exploring Britain but we can finally announce that our first housing project is going to happen in...
It's taken eighteen months of work and a year of exploring Britain but we can finally announce that our first housing project is going to happen in Swindon. In fact not one project but two, encompassing the North and South of the town.
We've teamed up with Footstep Homes www.footstephomes.co.uk, a development company with similar aspirations to Hab, and also with Swindon Borough Council. The Council responded to our approaches with enormous enthusiasm for both sustainability and quality of design. And we liked that.
Together we're working on a total of up to 400 homes across both sites - which offer challenges, not least of which is the fact they're both currently very green spaces. One is a redundant allotment site with scrubland to the North, the other is greenfield agricultural land in Swindon's "front garden". But our interest in these sites starts with what they already have: the trees, their open space and their ecology. We know from studies that it's possible to develop a site and in fact increase the biodiversity there.
You'll know by now from this blog that we're focussing on provincial and suburban housing projects, not trendy urban ones. Our aim isn't to build ring-fenced ghettos but to focus on the social and physical relationships between a Hab/Footstep project and the wider community, to bring tangible improvements to both, and to work closely with the local community to establish how this can best be done. You'll also know that we're not interested in just ticking all the eco-boxes, we're interested in making places that people really enjoy living in, places people enjoy visiting, places where people want to stay.
So if you live in Swindon, or nearby, and you care about architecture and about the place, let us know your feelings. You never know, we might ask you to come and be part of the client team as part of the design process.
Phil Spencer and Kirstie Allsopp give us their top ten tips on beating the house price slump
Restoring a property can be tricky so Kevin McCloud gives you his tips and advice
4Homes picks the top ten weirdest and most bizarre Grand Designs houses
Your Comments
Post your comment
Please note: In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in to Channel 4:
Sign In Here or Register Here
Comments closed
Comments are closed at the present time
Comments
Thank you for your comment!
Your message will be reviewed and the best ones will be published below.
If you intended to make an official comment to Channel 4 please contact us.
Comments