This is an architectural concept that goes far beyond the tick box mentality of standards and regulation; the framework of spaces here offers a truly flexible, adaptable home for life. The design philosophy challenges preconceptions of typical housing, which is prescriptive in lifestyle and use of space. The living spaces in Light Gallery House - each of which can be used for relaxing, working, eating, sleeping, playing, entertaining and celebration - support a diversity of change, occupancy, mobility and cultural preference over time.
The design breaks down barriers raised by conventional housing, requiring little or no adaptation to address the needs of mobility or limiting frailty, or to embrace the lifestyle preferences of ethnic minority households. It is therefore an inclusive housing solution and provides the basis for a strong, socially sustainable community. The concept can expand to provide a mix of housetypes and tenure, offering development solutions from urban infill to larger scale development in urban, suburban and rural contexts.
The basic home comprises floor plates with two spaces for living, arranged on either side of a smart pod, all linked by a full-height gallery. The light gallery is a key feature of the home, providing a space with a wow factor, a sense of space and light, and design quality, qualities that are so often missing from mass housing solutions.
The light gallery results from the rational plan and simple construction strategy. It occupies the open space created between the volumes of living space. It serves numerous functions: a stair and lift can be accommodated without encumbering living space, and natural light floods deep into the plan from above regardless of the orientation, allowing a narrow frontage to the dwelling. The gallery can incorporate internal or external balconies, or sun spaces and the additional space on the ground floor is never wasted, having the potential to be play space for a growing family or a home office.
Smart pods are envisaged as non-loadbearing shells that plug into a service core – the living wall zone that accommodates dedicated space to allow for servicing strategies that may change over the lifetime of the building. They provide showering or bathing spaces on each floor, adaptable to accommodate either temporary disability, growing frailty or capable of becoming fully accessible without compromising living spaces. They are generously sized to incorporate a mix of storage, laundry appliances and housing for renewable energy solutions: heat pumps, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR), or cylinders for solar hot water or community heating. Together the gallery and living wall give the home’s occupants options and flexibility to live as they want.
The open plan layout of the home encourages use of space for living and not corridors. Living space is therefore more generous and better able to accommodate diverse mobility needs. Where doors would take up space, restrict furniture arrangements or pose a hazard they are designed out or replaced with sliding doors or screens. External shutters can be provided to allow shading and increase security. Stairs are items of furniture – designed components incorporating storage compartments and integrating with a range of storage furniture pieces that can be built in to adapt the gallery space to meet occupants’ needs. This furniture and the storage capacity of the smart pods allow the home to meet all the storage needs of a family.
Most services are ducted and distributed around the smart pod zone centralizing sockets, switches and controls logically and accessibly. The design concept allows for services to be upgraded without impacting on living space or compromising the fabric of external or party walls, maintaining airtightness and acoustic performance.
The home can be delivered using most forms of construction, but is well suited to modern methods of construction and offsite manufacture as volumetric modules, structural insulated panels (SIPs) or cross laminated timber panels. The house is capable of achieving Code for Sustainable Homes level 4, with a view to meeting carbon compliance and energy efficiency standards for 2016.
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