Radical Housing

Designing multi-generational and co-living housing for all

Caroline Dove

• Editore: RIBA Publishing
• Anno: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000033458
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Architektur
• Categoria: Architektur Allgemein

Radical Housing explores the planning, technical, financial, health-based and social background for developing multi-generational homes and co-living. Abundantly illustrated with case studies and plans from projects across the UK and abroad, this book inform sand inspires the delivery of alternative approaches to affordable and flexible housing, and is an essential text for architecture practitioners, students, and community groups.

1
MULTIGENERATIONAL LIVING: EXISTING + NEW INDIVIDUAL HOMES

CASE STUDIES

1.1 RIBA JOURNAL AND NORBORD OSB MULTIGEN COMPETITION, UK

1.2 HOMES FOR THE FUTURE COMPETITIONS, UK

1.3 CHOBHAM MANOR MULTIGENERATIONAL HOMES, LONDON, UK

1.4 3 GENERATION HOUSE, AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS

1.5 CARING WOOD, KENT, UK

1.6 ‘SUPURBIA’ STRAGETY, LONDON, UK

Fig 1.0
White Architecture, LILAC, Leeds, 2013. Shared community spaces include biodiverse gardens.

Living with several generations has been the norm throughout history, rather than unusual. Yet the fact that 3.4 million people in the UK are sharing a home – three times as many as 30 years ago – is now considered reason for headline news.¹ Today, 25.9% of 20- to 34-year-olds live with their parents – a higher proportion in London, and varying across the UK.

That so many young people will not have the same chances as their parents and grandparents to own their own home, nor have access to a ‘job for life’, has been seen by some as a failing of the intergenerational contract.² Access to regular and well-remunerated employment is difficult for many young people, and the cost of renting, let alone saving for a deposit and mortgage, is beyond reach for many who have just left school or university. Living at home has become a necessity, rather than a choice, but the smaller homes that we have generally built since the post-war period constrain, and may be outgrown by, an adult family.

It was not until the Dutch merchants of the 17th century began setting up their own residences that people in Europe lived in single-family households.³ However, these were still likely to be several generations of one family, with live-in servants, tutors and other individuals employed in the running of a middle-class family home, in the days before technology and machines would take the strain and time out of managing domestic activities. Homes like these have therefore formed the structure and streetscape of our towns and cities for centuries, and the ability to adapt terraced houses and apartments, dating from the 17th to the early 20th centuries, for present day needs, is the reason for their continued popularity and longevity. A home on this scale – three or four storeys or more, and with many rooms – lends itself comfortably to families, and several generations can live harmoniously there together. Yet the history of housing in Britain is also one of crowded, single-room apartments, multi-family tenements and slums, products of the industrial revolution, which were eventually replaced with new homes by philanthropic societies and local councils.

Most family housing in Britain in use today has been provided, for rent or sale, by a third party; unlike in many other developed countries, new homes commissioned, built and inhabited by the owners themselves are not common. Individual homeowners adapting their existing homes, with the design expertise of an architect, is much more likely, spurred on in recent times by campaigns such as New London Architecture’s ‘Don’t Move, Improve’ initiative.

The homes that we are designing for life in the early 21st century are homes for the future. The Parker Morris Committee, in the early 1960s, defined the acceptable minimum space standards needed in the home; since then, spaces for living have become smaller, given that spaciousness was no longer a mandatory requirement for public housing. Only since the introduction of the London Housing Design Guidance, in 2012, and Nationally Described Space Standard, in 2015, have the minimum spatial requirements returned to that of the immediate post-war period, and now apply to all new build and all housing tenures.⁴

These small spaces permit quite limited experiences and possibilities. A typical home might allow sufficient room for preparation and consumption of a meal shared by the number of occupants that the home has been designed to accommodate, but no more. If a relative needs to visit, to help look after a new baby or young children, there is nowhere for them to sleep, let alone have a comfortable seat at the four-person table. Larger meals with friends and family are constrained to a buffet balanced on one’s knees, while hobbies – especially noisy, spread-out, messy ones – are very difficult to accommodate. The fact that so many people are now setting up their own businesses, or wanting the flexibility to work from home, suggests that more space is needed in the home of the future.

Physically, socially and economically, how we use our homes is changing rapidly and dramatically. Yet, even in our affluent society, the basic need for shelter, safety, security and comfort is barely being met for everyone. The value of land and cost of construction mean new homes are as small and economic as possible, sometimes even smaller than recommended minimum sizes, ostensibly so that they are more affordable for younger generations. Creating more homes, increasing supply so that homes become more affordable, is a slow process. Meanwhile, there are other social issues at play – such as the need for companionship, support and care of one another, as we live longer but not always more healthily – which may change how we think about our future homes.

How we live in our homes, what we want to do in them, and whether there are diverse and acceptable choices for everyone, is a key question for society, for the providers of homes, and for those who would like a roof over their heads. Providing a home which allows everyone to lead a fulfilling life, permits flexible working, nurtures interests, widens opportunities and facilitates caring for and supporting different generations, does not necessarily require significant investment in the latest technology or a bespoke one-off house. But it does mean careful design of homes to allow for adaptable and flexible use over time, with clever use of space and height.

A shared home is the smallest community we are considering in this chapter, and in its myriad forms it is the building block of society. Fundamentally, as architects, designers and planners, we are responsible for creating spaces in which life can be lived. A multigenerational home can be a dynamic and supportive place for older people, for young children and teenagers and for adult family members in between, to help each other to lead a more fulfilling life than they might otherwise be able to afford. The spaces which support this shared environment need to allow for privacy when it is required, and for sharing where sociability and involvement is appropriate. There is a wide range of research into the benefits of sharing, with insurance provider Aviva’s ‘Changing Households’ report finding that those actually sharing living space (whether through choice or need) had a significantly more positive view of the benefits than those who had not had the experience.⁵

Multigenerational homes in the United Kingdom

Recent reports have looked at spatial opportunities for housing in more detail. The National House Building Council (NHBC) report ‘Multigenerational Living: an opportunity for UK House builders?’ summarises the findings of the study by the Cambridge Centre for Housing & Planning Research, commissioned in 2017.⁶ The report explains the types of house builder homes which can be used easily by several generations, especially by boomerang children – grown-up family members who have left home for a few years to study at university, travel or work elsewhere, and then return to the family home.

NHBC have defined family homes as ‘multigenerational’ where there are:

• three or more generations of the same family living together, or
• two generations of the same family living together, consisting of parents and one or more adult children (over the age of 25) or
• two generations of the same family living together, consisting of one or more adult children (typically middle aged) and their elderly parent(s).⁷

This may be a permanent or semipermanent household living arrangement, at least over a few years, rather than people sharing a home on a short-term temporary basis.

Key findings in the report show that:

• Four out of five...