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| Grand Designs presenter seeks £1.5m for antidote to 'homogeneous' housing | |
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| Designer and TV presenter Kevin McCloud is looking to raise £1.5m from the public to help build customised homes that his company says will be the antidote to "bland homogeneous" suburbia. McCloud's company Happiness Architecture Beauty (HAB), will use the money to design 1,000 eco-friendly, "self-build" homes a year until 2018. It forecasts profits of £10m. | |
| Fewer than one in 10 UK homes are designed to their owner's specifications, a lower level than anywhere else in western Europe and the US, but the presenter of Channel 4's Grand Designs insisted that a self-build "revolution" was under way. Homes designed by HAB would be green, affordable – "in the context of UK house prices" – with social values. "Our responsibility as developer on the site of self-build will always be to put in the vegetable gardens, the car club, the shared social spaces, sustainable drainage and the edible hedgerows, orchards and suchlike." | Fewer than one in 10 UK homes are designed to their owner's specifications, a lower level than anywhere else in western Europe and the US, but the presenter of Channel 4's Grand Designs insisted that a self-build "revolution" was under way. Homes designed by HAB would be green, affordable – "in the context of UK house prices" – with social values. "Our responsibility as developer on the site of self-build will always be to put in the vegetable gardens, the car club, the shared social spaces, sustainable drainage and the edible hedgerows, orchards and suchlike." |
| Investors who join the crowd-funding scheme can expect dividends of at least 5% by the end of 2016 and would be entitled to a 5% discount off the price of a HAB home, according to its business plan. | Investors who join the crowd-funding scheme can expect dividends of at least 5% by the end of 2016 and would be entitled to a 5% discount off the price of a HAB home, according to its business plan. |
| HAB is best known for designing the Triangle estate in Swindon, Wiltshire, a development of 42 homes modelled on Victorian railway cottages, with shared gardens and rainwater harvesting. | HAB is best known for designing the Triangle estate in Swindon, Wiltshire, a development of 42 homes modelled on Victorian railway cottages, with shared gardens and rainwater harvesting. |
| The estate, split between social and private housing, has been garlanded with awards, but was criticised for shoddy building standards after it emerged that pipes leaked and walls had cracked. McCloud blamed the Triangle builders – "we weren't enamoured with the performance" – as well as the "design-build" contract that meant his company ceded control over the project. He said HAB had developed a much "tighter relationship" with contractors who had built a 78-home project in Stroud, Gloucestershire, which would be a model for the future. The company was recently granted planning permission for three housing estates in Oxford and is preparing applications for sites in Chippenham, Wiltshire, and in Gloucestershire. The government is keen to stoke the market for custom-designed homes. Inspired by a large-scale development of affordable self-build homes in Almere, in the Netherlands, it set aside £30m of finance in 2011 to encourage buyers to design their own homes. A Mori poll earlier this year showed that one in eight people had done some research on building their own home, but only 1% were actively looking for a plot. | The estate, split between social and private housing, has been garlanded with awards, but was criticised for shoddy building standards after it emerged that pipes leaked and walls had cracked. McCloud blamed the Triangle builders – "we weren't enamoured with the performance" – as well as the "design-build" contract that meant his company ceded control over the project. He said HAB had developed a much "tighter relationship" with contractors who had built a 78-home project in Stroud, Gloucestershire, which would be a model for the future. The company was recently granted planning permission for three housing estates in Oxford and is preparing applications for sites in Chippenham, Wiltshire, and in Gloucestershire. The government is keen to stoke the market for custom-designed homes. Inspired by a large-scale development of affordable self-build homes in Almere, in the Netherlands, it set aside £30m of finance in 2011 to encourage buyers to design their own homes. A Mori poll earlier this year showed that one in eight people had done some research on building their own home, but only 1% were actively looking for a plot. |
| "For Britain to go straight into producing what is happening on the continent in places like Almere would be unrealistic and I think we should learn to walk a little before we run," McCloud said. "All over the country there are lots of self build schemes of 30 to 40 homes going up already." | "For Britain to go straight into producing what is happening on the continent in places like Almere would be unrealistic and I think we should learn to walk a little before we run," McCloud said. "All over the country there are lots of self build schemes of 30 to 40 homes going up already." |