Hodgson, W; (2017) Finding suitable land for self-building on public housing estates. In: Proceedings of the 2017 Bartlett Doctoral Conference. UCL Bartlett School of Architecture: London, UK.

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Abstract

London is experiencing a serious housing crisis with excessive demand for homes and prices rising at around 10%1 per annum. Yet many Inner London housing estates, owned by local authorities, often contain under-used parcels of land: air-rights above single-storey garages, left-over corners of undefined public space, or buildings whose function has long since ceased or are under used such as first-floor playgrounds above former car parks. This research aims to establish the potential for these small unused or under-used sites on public housing estates to become locations for community self-build housing projects. The objective is to build such a project and test its viability in practice. To arrive at that point, however, new techniques will be needed to explore sites in my selected case-study area, Hoxton, in order that the data found can be recorded digitally in a coherent manner which is scalable and potentially parametric. The scalable processes will identify and catalogue unused and under-used spaces on council estates, including the analysis of significant data such as site area, potential height, and property adjacency. Until now, this kind of investigation has generally been carried using only two-dimensional information such as plans, estate agents web sites, or by wandering around streets in hope of finding something suitable. The proposal is that by adding detail such as height and geometry to maps, new sites can be detected which would otherwise be ignored or missed out. Furthermore, by developing an interactive form of 3D-mapping, this will allow local residents to discover and influence where new housing insertions might best be placed. Software will thus be developed to contribute to the finding of potential sites, while also involving vital community factors such as the ’right to light’ of neighbouring properties. Public engagement projects to test the willingness of Hoxton residents to participate in community self-built housing are an important feature of this doctoral thesis. These events will also be used to present my research outside the university environment, thereby helping to foster connections between University College London (UCL) and a wider audience of residents and potential housebuilders in London. Building proposals are being developed for selected sites which can be used to test various hypotheses including financial viability, building methods and the likelihood of obtaining development control consents. One project will be built by a group of future occupiers and the experience used to further test the viability of the self-build idea.

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