International Architecture Competition

London Affordable Housing Challenge

Affordable Housing Series #5

Results

Foreword

Competition organisers

London Affordable Housing Challenge

Official Partners

London Affordable Housing Challenge London Affordable Housing Challenge

According to the Mayor of London’s website, the current median monthly rental price in Central London exceeds £650 for a room in a shared apartment, £950 for a studio, and £1300 for a one-bedroom apartment.

That is to say, London is unaffordable.

Low- and median- income individuals and families cannot meet the financial demands of the city’s skyrocketing housing prices. This makes living close to one’s place of work in London a privilege: the UK’s Office of National Statistics estimates the average commute time at one hour. Families in the low- and middle-income bracket, young professionals, creatives, and key workers in industries critical for London to function - like teachers or police - tend to live far outside London’s city center.

Something needs to be done. So we’ve asked architects and designers to propose solutions for affordable housing in London.

Affordability is by no means a design issue alone. The topic requires the long-term attention and coordinated efforts of policy makers, residents, and planners. Architects, however, play a critical role in designing the future of our cities.

A range of ideas were submitted, some realistic and others conceptual. Common themes that were investigated include: methods of increasing density within the existing building stock; using shared or state-owned spaces like rivers, highways, bridges, train tracks, and even Buckingham Palace, to construct new housing above, below, or within; reworking low-density building types like warehouses and industrial spaces; and reintroducing alternative methods for land ownership, like community land trusts.

This competition is part of Bee Breeders’ Affordable Housing Crisis design series, which has already introduced several great proposals to address the global demand for urban housing. Some of these submissions and others will be included in the inaugural forthcoming print publication by ARCHHIVE: Issue 1: What is Affordable Housing?

Bee Breeders would like to thank all designers who participated for contributing to this growing library of design ideas!

Enter the next
competition edition!

ideas COMPETITION
Milan Affordable Housing Challenge
Affordable Housing Series #15

Design a concept for affordable housing in Milan

Prize: MONETARY AWARD
Eligibility: OPEN TO ALL

registration deadlines

Remind me
Dec 07
Jan 26
Apr 20
Register now

London Affordable Housing Challenge

Affordable Housing Series #5
1st Prize Winner

Project name

Beyond The Shell

Authors

Lianjie Wu

United Kingdom

Why do you enter architecture
competitions?

Instead of living my own dream, I wish I could have the opportunity to present my schemes to the public, to people who are from different professions and different backgrounds, and to people who might really need that scheme to help them sort through the issues they have now. I wish I could have the opportunity to hear the voice from them, to receive all the comments and criticism from them, which is extremely essential to any architecture proposals. We are building for people.

Jury feedback summary

3D printing has made great strides in recent years. A host of startups and technology companies are prompting new waves of investment, research, and publicity for this form of construction as a means to cheaper and quicker building. This design proposal takes advantage of the free-form nature granted by these technologies to offer a compelling design for mass affordable housing complexes that grow and mold with their inhabitants. A typical grid-like structural frame is provided as the base infrastructure on which a seemingly infinite range of curvilinear designs can be fitted to; these are fabricated in mobile trucks carrying digital fabrication tools for construction. The perennial question to ‘adaptable design’ is whether it can truly live up to its promise and deliver a project that is fully functional and adequate for its users.

2nd Prize Winner

Project name

Re.Co.De: Redesigning Contemporary Dwelling

Authors

Massimo Bricocoli
Gennaro Postiglione
Stefani Sabatinelli
Nicola Sirugo

Italy

Why do you enter architecture
competitions?

Vision competitions are an important element to test research ideas and thoughts and even to develop research by design activity in a more protected environment: when doing exploratory research to be realistic is much more relevant than to be real. And vision competitions have exactly this kind of connotation. Moreover, it is also very important to confront what you are doing in your practice and research with what many other peers are doing.

Jury feedback summary

Coliving and cohabitation serve to increase density by reorganizing the layouts of existing buildings for more efficient spaces, and to include shared amenities for larger groups of inhabitants. The designer of this project states: “the real revolution in housing is indoors.” The proposal rearranges the interior layout of a typical london housing block, as the designer claims, to mirror the growing variety of job positions and of family arrangements. The ways in which people organize their urban lives to afford housing “is to be more closely investigated, as this brings along significant changes in terms of housing cultures, patterns of solidarity/community, and socio-spatial organization.” The design offers a selection of flexible interior organizational components - including the bathroom core, the equipped wall fitted with shelving and insulation, and movable partitions. The layout accounts for a mixture of user profiles, from the single adult student, to the elderly couple, to the divorced parent with child. The jury wonders, in what other building typologies can this project be applied?

3rd Prize Winner

Project name

Informal Intimacy

Authors

Medina Dzonlic
Daniel Andersson

Denmark

Why do you enter architecture
competitions?

Social housing as a typology is a complex work of architecture intended to be inhabited by a diverse population. The answers given to this typology are unfortunately based on simplified assumptions, repeated standards and uninspired architecture. Our interest in this competition was to create a vision beyond today’s monotonous development, which this competition allowed for.

Jury feedback summary

This project, titled Informal Intimacy, seeks to establish a new architecture for social housing using modernist principles. In its simplicity and austerity it offers flexibility, with a wide range of spatial combinations that relate to people’s wide-ranging identities. The submission states: “The project dismisses the idea of social housing being an architecture based on standardized minimums, a one size fits all, instead the architectus is established as a field of opportunities.” It offers a mix of intimate and flexible rooms for large collectives or a small number of inhabitants, the arrangements being based on a variation of spatial sequences. The range of drawings, images, and models this submission included proves a highly-refined and thoroughly-studied idea. The jury asks, is this project intended to be suitable only for new construction, or can it also be applied to infill sites and existing infrastructure?

BB STUDENT AWARD

Project name

Wesley New Town // Chronotopia

Authors

Yip Siu

United Kingdom

Why do you enter architecture
competitions?

Architecture visions competitions allow for speculative ideas to be born that are free from various constraints involved with a built proposal. However, keeping in mind the reality of the socio-political and economic pressures of our world today, such competitions also encourage a negotiation between the speculative and the utilitarian, where a delicate balance could be struck in such short timeframes. Ultimately, competitions are a testing ground for ideas and I see them as a time-based exercise to develop and quickly respond meaningfully to a brief and its core ideas.
BB GREEN AWARD

Project name

Hedge House

Authors

David Saand
Simone De Bergh
Björn Vestlund
Jay Williams

Company

White arkitekter

Sweden

Why do you enter architecture
competitions?

Vision competitions give a freedom to develop or rethink our ideas. It gives opportunities to take another position and point of view which changes how we see things in a new way and boosts our creativity. But our motivation is not only intrinsic, at the same time we want to share our knowledge and our research by participating in vision competitions.

Honorable mentions

VIEWclose HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Project Name

Weaving a Homescape Tapestry

University

University college london
+72 points Buildner University Rankings!

Country

United Kingdom

Project authors

Robert Newcombe

Project Name

Postcode M25

Country

United Kingdom

Project authors

Amrita Raja
Katharine Storr

Project Name

Mind the Gap: Somersault Terrace

Country

United States

Project authors

Melissa Shin
Amanda Shin

Project Name

Football's (be)coming Home

Country

Hong Kong

Project authors

Jeffrey Lam
Douglas Leung

Project Name

A Bridge of (Terrace) Houses

Country

United Kingdom

Project authors

William Maddinson

Project Name

Affordable Palace

Company

Opposite office

Country

Germany

Project authors

Benedikt Hartl
Thomas Haseneder

Shortlisted projects

VIEWclose Shortlisted projects

Thailand

nuttapong chantrawatana
atipat kritsanapan
polpipat naksawat
ratasakon chantaluxsul

Puerto Rico

University of Puerto Rico - Río Piedras Campus

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
namir cisneros
estefania serrano
lisandra perez
diego hernandez

United Kingdom

The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, University College London

+72 points Buildner University Rankings!
robert newcombe

United States

yein corbett-lee
ji young ha

Colombia

Universidad Santo Tomas

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
juan david martinez granados
karen daniela ramos castañeda
carlos daniel rey ortega

United Kingdom

The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, University College London

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
kerry ngan

United Kingdom

The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, University College London

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
shi yin ling

United Kingdom

george clarke
harry lewis
saskia furman
oliver bennison

Colombia

Universidad Santo Tomas

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
robinson almeyda
sebastian torres
simon camacho
william larrota

Italy

massimo bricocoli
gennaro postiglione
stefani sabatinelli
nicola sirugo

Uruguay

german arismendi
tamara corts
gonzalo acuña

Uruguay

Humphreys architects

ximena moraes
nicolas quagliata
nicolas percovich
veronica slyomovich

Uruguay

Humphreys and partners architects

marcela sarroca
elvira lopez
maria jose cayon

Denmark

medina dzonlic
daniel andersson

Brazil

ana rolim
larissa falavigna
andré figueiredo
brenda ciríaco

United States

Rice University

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
ibrahim salman

Nigeria

Primetech design and engineering nigeria limited

alfred bonsra
abdullahi hamza
oluwaseun fayankin

Sweden

White arkitekter

david saand
simone de bergh
björn vestlund
jay williams

Germany

Opposite office

benedikt hartl
thomas haseneder

United States

jessica hester
anthony cricchio
gabriela villalobos

United States

ziang ao
tao ma
ximeng li

Philippines

Mnmstudio architects

maher h

United Kingdom

kalliopi bouzounieraki
sofia katsarou

United Kingdom

alexander mcdow
maarten mutters
jeremy haest
james spittle

United States

melissa shin
amanda shin

United Kingdom

amrita raja
katharine storr

Italy

federica annamaria ferrari
elisa laura costa

Singapore

National University of Singapore

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
yu heng lim
yun chou han
matthias tan
jason tan

Netherlands

Uarchitects

misak terzibasiyan
vytaute venskute

United Kingdom

Feilden clegg bradley studios llp

stephane lambert
sam austen
isaac cherian
joe jack williams

China

Shenzhen University (SZU)

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
honglian zhang
wei xu
ya fei wang

United Kingdom

University of Edinburgh

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
william bayram
 

Open architecture competitions

  • Closest Deadline first
  • Project competitions first
    Selected winning projects have the potential to be constructed
  • Ideas competitions first
    Experimental competitions with the focus on pushing the boundaries of creativity
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Prize: MONETARY AWARD + CONSTRUCTION
Eligibility: OPEN TO ALL

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project COMPETITION
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Design a yoga guest house located within rich bog wildlife

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registration deadlines

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Reccuring architecture competitions

ideas COMPETITION
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For this competition, NO DESCRIPTION TEXT is allowed. The architecture ideas must be communicated strictly with visuals.
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Prize: MONETARY AWARD
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Prize: MONETARY AWARD + PUBLICATION IN MAGAZINE
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registration deadlines

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registration deadlines

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Prize: MONETARY AWARD
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Children's Hospice
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Prize: MONETARY AWARD
Eligibility: OPEN TO ALL

registration deadlines

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Dec 06
Feb 08
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Run repeatedly
Milan Affordable Housing Challenge
Affordable Housing Series #15

Design a concept for affordable housing in Milan

Prize: MONETARY AWARD
Eligibility: OPEN TO ALL

registration deadlines

Remind me
Dec 07
Jan 26
Apr 20
Register now
Run repeatedly
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Prize: MONETARY AWARD
Eligibility: OPEN TO ALL

registration deadlines

Remind me
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Creativity gym Short term competitions for you to exercise your creativity

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Design THE architect's t-shirt!

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Eligibility: open to all

registration deadlines

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Submit your online portfolio!

Prize: 5,000 €
Eligibility: open to all

registration deadlines

Remind me
Mar 31
Apr 30
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Register now

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Competition results

MICROHOME

MICROHOME

Small living, huge impact! Edition #4
Hong Kong 
Pixel Homes

Hong Kong Pixel Homes

Affordable Housing Series #2
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