Bristol Housing Festival - TrustNews Dec 18
I came away from a weekend in Bristol a couple of weeks ago much enthused and intrigued by the efforts being made in that city to face up to the national and local crisis in the affordability of our housing and as an outcome of that, the acute shortage in housing. The city has launched the Bristol Housing Festival, which will run for five years. It intends to road-test a range of existing concepts and innovative solutions in the real-world, helping to speed up the delivery of quality, affordable housing in the city. These prototypes will help develop scalable and longer-term solutions to create housing, places and communities and so promote hope and wellbeing. l have quoted here from the brochure l was offered as l looked round the various modular examples at their Festival site on the docks.
Wake up, Winchester! There is so much going on out there. Could it not be possible for a small team to go across and unashamedly borrow all the ideas possible to bring home some punch and energy and vision to the discussion round the solutions needed here. The Festival is aimed at, naturally, the Local Authority but also expects to draw into the discussion all other sectors, the public, private, academic and voluntary. This is to achieve a One City Approach where innovation and collaboration are at the heart of city activity.
Some of the contributors:
www.WeCanMake.org They aim to unlock micro-sites for residents to build homes at the point of need. 300 affordable homes in Knowle West, south Bristol.
http://www.zedfactory.com/zed-pod They will build a row of these, 2/3 storeys high, on part of a car park site. Yes, l can hear the shrieks but go and look.
www.modcell.com Innovative, off-site manufactured wall and roof cladding. Can be installed in weeks, as the Zed-Pods above.
www.tempohousing.org.uk A new prototype suitable for students or young professionals. Collaboration which will grow new investment and means of raising new funds for housing. 6 months to complete Place2BU of 510 units in Utrecht.
l know that huge energy is being poured into the three major projects underway in Winchester at the moment. These will all contribute to healthy growth for the city BUT the question being dodged the whole time is ‘Where are people going to live?'
The Bristol Housing Festival (www.brlstolhousingfestlval. org. uk) launch event ran from 19th October to 4th November.