Tag: co-housing

HPH291 : Having the freedom to build what you want – with Werner Brouwer

Werner Brouwer explains why being able to build a house without restrictions in Oosterwold is also about working together to build a community.

Interview with Werner Brouwer

Since its conception 50 years ago, there has been much interest in the Oosterwold development of the Almere area in the Netherlands.

From the first houses being built around five years ago, there are now around 500 houses, from a total of 15,000 which are expected to be built.

Werner Brouwer works for the municipality of Almere as Director of Development at Oosterwold.

“The very special thing is you can choose anything you want, but the difficulty is you have to choose.”

Without many regulations in place, or indeed a designer or planning officer, decisions need to be made by the residents. While this appears on the face of it to be an exciting prospect, it does leave them with the problem of having to make those decisions, even if they’re difficult to do. For example, with even the road-building needing to be self-organised, it is left for future neighbours to cooperate together.

“That’s not an easy part because everyone has a different budget, different ideas, and you have to come to one end.”

The difficulty is not in building the house

Building the house, or getting someone in to design and build it for you, can actually be relatively easy, in comparison to other aspects of being a homeowner at the Oosterwold site. For most people, it will be the first time they have done something like this, and what they are finding is that it took a lot more time and was considerably more difficult than they thought. As novices, trying to find out how to go about building roads and wastewater treatment systems, and particularly in collaboration with your future neighbours, can be extremely challenging and time-consuming.

Road building can be a contentious issue

At Oosterwold, when you buy a plot you will have a drawing that shows where the road will need to go. As you can only start building your house once you have a road, you are dependent on that cooperation with your neighbours for getting the road built. While this can be a chance to bond with them, it can also lead to tensions.

There are some regulations about the dimensions to ensure it is suitable for emergency vehicle access, but beyond that it is for the neighbours of their particular area to agree on what it is going to be made from, and how to divide the cost. They could decide the percentages will be based on the number of houses, the size of the plot, income, number of cars owned, etc.

Werner is already involved in a legal procedure where people are in dispute about the road.

“People choose things that are not common, and you have to fit in with them”

Plots are allocated in sequence along rows, so when you see a plot you like you have to contact the one there before you. It is the nature of the development that people might want something outside of the norm, but in order to achieve that there has to be collaboration with your new neighbours. For example, if someone wants a circular plot, they will need to find someone that wants a concave plot for next door.

The freedom to make their own choices means there is a lot of diversity, with houses being built out of straw, car tyres, wood, steel, and shipping containers, all next to each other. With no say about what your neighbour can build, it’s a development that might not suit everyone!

Community sustainability contributes to the conscience of behaviour

Sustainability in terms of energy consumption is generally done at an individual level, but a big focus is on developing a sustainable community. As part of this there is an obligation to contribute 50% of each plot to city farming for food production. This could be by way of keeping sheep, planting fruit trees or a vineyard.

Wastewater and sewerage is also dealt with locally in the development, with residents being responsible for their own treatment systems. One positive that comes out of this is it has meant that individuals at Oosterwold have an awareness of the circularity of water and what their own needs are.

However, lessons have been learned that it’s actually a very technical solution so they are planning for the government to take back some of the responsibility for the wastewater treatment.

The process is the same for schools and public transport

With a development of this size there will need to be community facilities, but these follow the same rules as for the house building. In Holland, there is a financial deal whereby if an initiative and backing are raised to build a school, then the government will have to pay for it. But that initiative, like all the others, will have to take its turn, be involved in the road building for that section, and provide the necessary agricultural space.

Developers are not allowed!

Werner accepts that while sometimes developers could do it better or faster, this provides an alternative for people who don’t want to live in a standard home. With a shortfall of one million houses that need to be built in the country, Oosterwold draws on the experience gained from fast development at Almere to offer choice for those that would like to build a house themselves.

Time needs to be taken to implement lessons learned

With Oosterwold covering an area of 4,300 hectares, Werner says one of their objectives is about slowing down development. If 1,000 people rush into building, it could mean 1,000 mistakes being made. Better to let it move at a slower pace and have time to respond to issues.

There is currently an evaluation taking place looking at what has gone well, what has gone wrong and what could be done better.

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Find out more about Oosterwold

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October 21, 2020
HPH278 : A beginner’s guide to self build – with Geoff Stow

Having worked on his own hands-on group self build project, and site managed others, Geoff Stow shares his experience on where to start when it comes to self build.

Interview with Geoff Stow

Geoff’s involvement with self build started years ago when he worked with a community arts project in south London, making a video with a group of self builders who were promoting their scheme in Lewisham. So when Lewisham decided to do another scheme he put his name down, chairing and being part of a group of 13 that built their own houses on a Walter Segal project. From there, his involvement continued with working as a site manager for other group self build schemes, including the Hedgehog project in Brighton.

“My background isn’t as a builder really but I think in some ways that’s quite interesting because it’s actually coming at it as a novice. I’m sympathetic with people who are trying to get a scheme off the ground.”

Geoff also runs courses on timber frame self build, and self build project management at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales.

Hope Wharf

Hope Wharf

It’s likely to be harder than you’re expecting!

Geoff says he’s never met anyone who said they wished they hadn’t done it, but does stress that you should be prepared for a lot of hard work. He thinks there is actually very little in place to make things easier, with the majority of things at the beginning like planning and finding out how to connect services, being geared up to failing.

Whereas most people spend their time at the beginning sketching designs for a plot they don’t yet have, he recommends instead taking that time to research and understand the issues involved. That could be around planning, environmental issues, insulation, ventilation etc.

Take the opportunity to go to the exhibitions to grow your understanding and help you talk the same language as the experts, but bear in mind that a lot of it is sales focused.

Understand the issues around claiming back the VAT, and get yourself organised with a good accounting system so you can keep track of staying within budget.

Build your knowledge by checking out some of the self-build books around, like Mark Brinkley’s Homebuilder’s Bible. They’re worth reading for finding out about things like health and safety requirements, working out how you’re going to organise your project, whether you might be able to site manage it yourself, and understanding what the relevant issues around that might be.

Use your suppliers by asking for detailed information, and if they can’t provide it then don’t use them. Geoff gives the example of a window supplier, where you should be providing wall designs and asking what’s the best way of fitting them.

Have a sensible budget

Keep in mind that things rarely come in under budget or ahead of schedule, so have a sensible budget that is based on real costings, not just how much you’d like to spend or how much other people have spent. Be wary of the figures that people quote when they say their house cost X amount per square metre, as you never quite know what has been included and what has been omitted.

Budget high for all of the initial stages. Things like the foundations, services and access roads can have plenty of unknowns and it’s much easier to price up more accurately for the above ground works. Add on a good contingency once you get quotes in as this should free up money later on.

In addition to budgeting for the overall cost of the build, if you’re using a self build mortgage you will need to consider your cash flow. They work by releasing money once a stage is finished, so although you might have enough money in total, you might find the project grinding to a halt if you do not have it available at the right times.

Finding land will probably mean making compromises

Geoff’s key piece of advice for finding land is to be flexible, as there’s not that much of it around. He thinks it best to spend time in the area where you’re looking as quite often word of mouth can be helpful.

Take the time to understand your site

Geoff estimates that, depending on your skill base and level of organisation, around a year is a good length of time to spend on your research. As part of this he recommends spending time on your site and understanding how to place the house so you can get the best out of it. This will include things like orientation, window placement and learning how the sun falls on the site at different times. During this period you can also be going to exhibitions and talks, doing courses, going on Passivhaus open days and speaking to other people that have built their own homes.

Focus on getting the fabric of the building right

Geoff says you’re never likely to hear someone say that they wish they’d put in cheaper windows or used less insulation! So concentrate on getting the insulation, windows, detailing of doors, heating systems etc right, and getting it to the best quality that you can afford. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the perfect house straight away, and you can always retrofit your dream kitchen or build a second stage later when finances allow.

Speak to other people for advice

Get as much information as you can from suppliers and manufacturers about their products and their detailing. Also speak to builders’ merchants who might be able to suggest alternative products that you might not have come across.

Geoff follows a couple of Facebook groups which he says, if you filter through a lot of the rubbish and sales pitches, can actually have really good information and experience that people are willing to share.

“There’s no right way of doing it…what there are is a lot of wrong ways!”

Geoff stresses that there is no right build system to use, and the method that you choose will be based on a lot of criteria. Whatever method you do choose, just make sure that it’s of the highest quality you can afford.

A lot of it will be down to personal preference, and whether you like timber, stone, brick etc.

Geoff’s preference is for timber frame, partly for the accuracy and speed which it affords. He personally would also avoid very innovative systems by very small companies as there can be a question of whether or not they can actually deliver.

Also consider what kind of products you want to be using. Some people might want high performance foam insulation, whereas others will want to go as natural as possible and use sheep’s wool or Warmcel type insulation.

“Whatever building method you go with, you just need to really understand what the issues and the criteria are. The good points and the bad points. And ignore what people say about their method being the best, it’s modern or it’s developed by NASA or something ridiculous. Just understand what the issues are with all of them and base it on real costs.”

Decide how much involvement you’re going to have

As a client there are options as to how involved you will be on the project, ranging from paying huge sums of money to a building company who will do everything for you, to getting hands-on and doing practically everything yourself.

Probably the biggest deciding factor is thinking about what skills you have, but not necessarily assuming that because you can do something yourself it will necessarily be quicker or cheaper.

“So, if a job that a skilled person can do quickly and well and you can do fairly well and take a long time over, that might mean that it’s longer before you move in and you’ve got more mortgage repayments, more insurance, if you’re renting a house then there’s the rent that you’re paying while you’re doing it. So, you might think you’re saving some money but actually, are you really?”

You might also find that by doing a job yourself and taking longer about it, you might be holding up the next trade that can’t come in and do their job until you’ve finished. Instead there might be jobs that you can do which won’t involve holding anyone else up, like prepping and putting up cladding for example.

When it comes to managing the project, you have the choice of paying someone else to do it, or doing it yourself. Obviously doing it yourself in theory should save you money, if done well, but consider whether you have the expertise to: keep things on track and on budget, get prices and employ subcontractors, nudge people when needed, make sure the work is being done to a high standard, check health and safety standards are being adhered to, keep neighbours on side etc.

Do it on the terms of what you can afford, what skills you have and what you want your level of involvement to be.

Being too fixated can be a common pitfall

Geoff sees people that might become completely fixated on building a straw house for example, when actually the site they have might not actually be ideally suited.

“It’s just understanding the issues around those sorts of things and not necessarily getting very fixated on one thing where you end up making your build really complicated because you’ve got this one fixed idea that you saw somewhere on television that you want.”

He also says that no matter what you do there will be people saying that you shouldn’t have done it that way. And maybe even you yourself will look back and think you might have done it differently, but just try to get as much right as you can based on the knowledge and research at the time.

People always say they want to be in by Christmas!

Geoff suggests when it comes to how long a project will take, that if you’re planning to do a lot of the work yourself then try and avoid it going over two winters, as the second is always particularly tough (especially so if you’re living in a caravan!) Realistically you could be looking at 12 to 18 months on site, but less than that if you have builders.

He also recommends trying to get as much finished as possible before moving in, even if that means throwing money at some good contractors to speed things up. Finishing off works once you’re living there is much harder to do and becomes less likely to ever get done.

To help keep on track with the budget and schedule, try not to make changes as you go along. You can make minor changes but you don’t want to be deciding to change window placement or move walls once work is on site.

Work with an architect who is on your wavelength

Keep a scrapbook of ideas and images that you like and can show to a designer or architect, and make sure you work with someone who is going to design the sort of thing you want.

Although it’s not necessary to employ an architect, having a good one on board that is sympathetic to your ideas can elevate your plans and give you a wow factor, rather than simply being a series of rooms joined by a corridor.

Having an architect involved could just be paying someone for a simple check over your plans and offering advice, to a full package of designing the house, getting it through planning and building control, and seeing the whole project through to completion and sign-off at the end.

A key consideration in choosing who to work with is finding someone who is on your wavelength that you feel you can work with. Ask for proof that they really understand the issues that matter to you, as some might claim to be providing a sustainable and energy efficient building just because it complies with current building regulations.

Participants on a timber frame course

Find out more

Visit the website of the Centre for Alternative Technology

Join House Planning Help’s Facebook group

Transcript

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February 19, 2020
HPH267 : Self build tips, eco design and the climate emergency – with Kevin McCloud from Grand Designs
Kevin McCloud from Grand Designs shares practical advice on how to approach an ecological build, and comments on how architecture needs to change to address the climate emergency.

Interview with Kevin McCloud

Kevin McCloud has been synonymous with self build for the last 20 years. No doubt anyone planning their own project has had conversations with friends, family and colleagues about Grand Designs, as the programme has inspired a generation of people to dream about building their own home and, for some of those, to make it a reality. As well as being integral to the success of the TV show, Kevin is also the founder of HAB custom build houses.

Grand Designs has diversified

The busiest period of filming for Grand Designs is between May and October when Kevin can be filming up to fifteen hours a day, for three days a week. Because it’s impossible to know whether a project is going to take several months or several years they’re never quite sure what is going to end up in each series.

Kevin attributes the show’s longevity to being able to find interesting stories that they haven’t covered before, whether that might be about a Passivhaus construction, a new technology or building for a disability.

The Grand Designs brand has expanded to include ‘Grand Designs: House of the Year‘ in association with RIBA, and in 2019 also brought us ‘Grand Designs: The Street‘. This followed a number of self build projects taking place on a single street on the Graven Hill development in Bicester, with plans to return and film another series.

Kevin says one of the most significant films he made was in series one, which was a community housing project in Brighton called The Hedgehog Housing Co-op, that used a Walter Segal construction method. In the future he would be keen to follow another community self build co-housing scheme, but says that they’re sadly very hard to find.

There have been some stand-out eco projects

Some of Kevin’s favourite projects have been ones with a focus on sustainability. One he particularly enjoyed was Ben Law, who in 2003 built his house out of his own coppiced wood. He describes it as being a beautiful story where nothing went wrong to create a fabulously beautiful house.

“It was a film in which the word sustainability was mentioned once by Ben and I thought that was great. It elegantly told the story without hammering it on people’s heads.”

Copyright ben-law.co.uk

Another memorable one was the Lammas Project, which followed a couple building in Wales. He says it was a beautiful film about super low-impact living that was as much about the lifestyle as it was about the architecture.

“It’s rather like ecological cars. They don’t exist. There’s no such thing as an ecological car. It doesn’t matter whether it’s full of batteries or it runs on dog poo. The point is, it’s all about our consumption and use of vehicles that determines whether their use has an impact on the planet. That’s where fundamentally the largest amount of environmental impact happens, in use.

“And it’s the same with dwellings. So, you can build yourself an eco-house but if you continue to drive fifty miles to work every day and continue to live an exorbitant lifestyle, it doesn’t really achieve very much.”

Being asthmatic himself, Kevin had a keen interest in Elinor Olisa’s healthy home that featured in the last series. With two children that suffered from life-threatening allergies, Elinor researched every product coming into the home to check for VOC levels and potential triggers. She has worked with the University of York to monitor the environmental performance and the results have been staggering.

“A fabric first approach is glorious”

A theme of the recent series and also in his own work, is a leaning towards a fabric first method of building, rather than bolting things on to make them seem more sustainable. Invariably the latter is an expensive and unnecessary way of working, but choosing the right materials and using them in an intelligent way is a far better approach.

“It’s like the argument about the Americans and the Russians in their Space Race. The Americans spent tens of thousands of pounds developing a ballpoint pen that would write upside down in space, and the Russians used pencils. I don’t think that’s true but I just love the story.”

A sense of responsibility

Kevin believes the responsibility as architects and builders should be to build buildings which are super-efficient in terms of how they use energy and their resources, but they should also ‘deliver a quality of life that makes their arguments utterly compelling.’

Achieving this takes a combination of good design where homes cost very little to run, where the experience of being in the buildings is uplifting and where people want to stay and build a community.

“It’s the idea of how you use the spaces in between buildings to create social sustainability which has in itself a collective reduction in demand on the planet’s resources. In other words, if you share an allotment and you grow your own food; if you join a car club because you know your neighbours and you want to do it; if between you, you buy a bicycle for the street; or buy one trampoline for five households for the kids; or one shed; or one lawnmower between five homes; what you’re doing is actually, you’re sharing cost, you’re saving yourselves loads of money, and you’re also saving resources and making your collective imprint on the planet lighter.”

People often think of self build as a collection of ideas at the start

These ideas might be around what sort of bathrooms, kitchens, taps, sofas, lights etc that people like, and they assemble the home based on aspects which are more associated with the interior design than the architecture.

Kevin sees architecture as being:

“a process of design which is very good at resolving all kinds of issues to do with how buildings, places respond to where they are, to site, to the environment, to their location, to the passage of the sun, to how they function in engineering terms, but also how they provide uplifting and exciting spaces for their occupants that lift the spirits.”

For him architecture is about creating a connection with the outdoors, while also problem solving things like storage space, and a lot less about the taps!

Grand Designs ‘The Street’ (copyright gravenhill.co.uk)

Grand Designs ‘The Street’ (copyright gravenhill.co.uk)

Enable more people to self build, as it can be truly empowering

Kevin says that it’s pretty much established that the middle classes can go out and build for themselves, and he would like those opportunities open to more people. He believes that through community you get a far greater sense of attachment to a place and an accompanying sense of empowerment from building your own home. It’s a combination that could be life-changing for many people.

To do this, self build needs to be:
- More widespread
- Facilitated by local authorities
- Have dedicated sites, with communities of self-builders working together
- Truly affordable
- Have more co-housing community schemes
- Have housing associations working with groups of their residents as clients to build accommodation
Kevin would like to see people being empowered in as many ways as possible, and yet the system in the UK is set up to favour the large developers controlling the market. While he wouldn’t suggest a future entirely dominated by self build or community self build, he would like to see a diversity of offerings which would create a healthier market.

Large numbers of people wanting to build together within a community can put pressure on the authorities to deal with their land assets in a different way. There is even a question of whether land in public ownership should have a financial value attached to it, because of the net social capital that can be created by building together, and which is very evident in schemes across Europe. And if that community can be further enhanced with car share, improved cycle routes and better public transport and sharing generally, then that social capital has been increased even more.

Development is a dysfunctional industry

In considering what it would take to solve the housing crisis in the UK, Kevin says he would need to be the Prime Minister as the industry is so dysfunctional!

“I would empower small and medium enterprises; I would mitigate against the large housebuilders; I would mandate every single local authority to allocate land. I’d use the Right to Build Act in fact.

“The trouble is, everything I’m describing has already been tried. And that’s the difficulty. It’s not one problem. We have a crisis in numbers; we have a crisis of quality; we have a crisis in affordability; we have a crisis in planning. We have only half of the number of planners that we need. And we don’t have within central government a statement of faith. And what I would personally like to see, if I could do one thing, I would announce a national statement of faith in social housing.

“We need to move back to a world where we integrate, where tenure is blind, where you can’t tell who owns and who rents, where housing is considered a basic human right, and we need to create the mechanisms to make that affordable not just to own but to rent, to share, and to occupy by whatever means. There are plenty of tenure models around the world which work.

“So, what we have is a binary system in the UK which is hilariously out-of-date and a market delivery mechanism which is dysfunctional and broken. So, we’ve got lots to mend, lots to do, but by just saying, ‘we believe in council housing’ or ‘we believe in providing high quality housing for all and we will do everything we can to achieve that’ would be a wonderful thing.”

Grand Designs Live

The Grand Designs Live exhibitions take place in the UK twice a year. Kevin is proud that they offer tangible opportunities for people to touch and feel products and experience their quality. As part of the exhibition there is also an exchange of ideas where you can get help and advice from experts.

Milk bottle house at Grand Designs Live

With his passion for innovation, Kevin is excited by the new technology being showcased, with exhibitors now selling products on their stands that only a couple of years ago were in the ‘Green Heroes’ section.

Find out more

Catch up with previous episodes of Grand Designs

Visit the websites of:
- Grand Designs Live
- HAB Housing
Transcript

Download a transcript of the interview with Kevin McCloud

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October 16, 2019
HPH239 : 3 great eco developments in New Zealand – with Matthew Cutler-Welsh

Matthew Cutler-Welsh takes us through three exciting projects that are making an impact in New Zealand.

Interview with Matthew Cutler-Welsh

Matthew Cutler-Welsh of Home Style Green was one of our early guests on the podcast, talking about some of the challenges of creating sustainable urban systems.

Since we last spoke with him, he has trained in building surveying. It has taught him more about building science and he sees it as a positive step that expertise in building science is generally becoming more recognised and utilised in architecture and construction in New Zealand.

“Because what I’ve realised is that buildings are complex systems and they’re a system of systems, and the more we make them controlled environments on the inside then the more we have to understand how the various aspects of physics, basically, interrelate to each other.”

This interest has also led Matthew to his new role working with Pro Clima, where he primarily works to educate and support both the design industry and building industry in their understanding of some of the fundamentals of building science.

Matthew is also on the board of the Passive House Institute New Zealand.

The Living House

Matthew’s first choice to discuss is owned by friends of his – Rochelle and Joel. This one is unique in that as well as physically building the house themselves using rammed earth, they are also targeting the triple prize of achieving the Passivhaus standard, Living Building Challenge and Homestar (equivalent to the old Code for Sustainable Homes or LEED).

Rochelle is an engineer by trade and is very detail focused, hunting down products and details and finding out everything there is to know about them.

Matthew explains that as well as being an amazing home, it will be an incredible resource for the whole industry, leading the way for others to follow.

He says the house, by pushing boundaries, is already making waves and challenging the Council. Meeting standards is generally the path of least resistance to getting permission, but for anyone trying to build a house that actually performs better they may find themselves with an uphill struggle.

“So, if you’re doing something that falls outside of that because you want to have a house that actually performs really, really well, then you have to put in quite a lot of effort to prove to the Council that the products, systems and how everything fits together is not going to cause them any problems down the track.”

Because they’re doing a Living Building Challenge, they are able to argue a case for not having to pay fees for Council utilities that they won’t be using. They’re finding that this is rattling a few cages!

The design

Rochelle and Joel are building a contemporary style of home using rammed earth. The earth is sustainable as it is sourced fairly locally, and also allows them to do much of the building themselves. While it might not have universal appeal in terms of aesthetic and time it takes to build with, it is certainly a unique product.

Living Building Challenge

Matthew explains the Living Building Challenge as going beyond sustainability. He says that ‘sustainable’ is just a case of not doing harm, whereas the philosophy behind the Living Building Challenge is thinking about how the environment can actually be improved by the building being there.

“So, the building becomes an asset to the ecology and the environment around it. Rather than just taking it as how do I make this building and do less bad to the environment, how can I actually use this building as an integral part of the ecosystem.”

One aspect is in the treatment of water, where the building systems (natural filtration systems, rain gardens etc) clean the water so that any run-off from the site is actually cleaner than the water that comes onto the site in the first place.

Living Building Challenge also provide guidance on the use of products and materials, which can be a particular challenge in a small island nation, where you’re encouraged to use as many local materials as possible. They also don’t allow the use of some materials like certain foams and polystyrenes because of the chemical toxicity in the manufacturing process.

Waikato House

Matthew’s next choice is a house built in the Waikato region, south of Auckland. It was built by a builder who now works for eHaus, a national brand of Passivhaus building in New Zealand.

Matthew explains that it stands out as being built by someone who clearly has been re-inspired and discovered a new passion.

He describes it as a contemporary home in green pastures and farmland, that has a beautiful design and doesn’t look like a Passivhaus.

“But it was really that passion from the builder, the pride and the beauty of the simplicity of this house that really struck me.”

This house has been built as a show home for the construction company, and Matthew comments on how something they are seeing more of, is builders offering a “try before you buy” approach to selling houses. So instead of visiting a show home for half an hour you’re able to try it out for a night and experience first-hand how well it performs.

Dunedin co-housing

This co-housing group formed in 2013, and they are looking to build 20-25 houses on a 5000 square metre site, which was formerly a high school.

The group have overcome challenges, particularly financial ones, and now have plans for two rows of terraced housing.

Images from Architype NZ

Matthew is drawn to this project, partly because of its Passivhaus credentials and sense of community, but also because it is addressing the affordability issue.

“Co-housing projects like this really open up the opportunities for creating community and creating housing that works for people.”

He sees it as an exciting project that could pave the way for future similar schemes around the country.

Matthew highlights that there is a global community of people involved in co-housing, who have done projects successfully and are keen to help on other projects.

And although this, and many other co-housing projects, can take a while to get off the ground, it’s actually as much about the process as the finished house.

Find out more

Check out Matthew’s Home Style Green podcast

Follow Matthew on Twitter

Find out more about the projects in this episode:

The Living House

Waikato House

Dunedin co-housing

Transcript

Download a transcript of the interview with Matthew Cutler-Welsh

Please connect with me

Subscribe, rate and review the podcast in iTunes

Rate and review the podcast on Stitcher

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January 23, 2019
HPH146 : Could engaging with your local council help your self build? – with Emma Osmundsen from Exeter City Council
Emma Osmundsen from Exeter City Council suggests ways of enagaging with your local council for the benefit of your self build project.

Interview with Emma Osmundsen

Emma Osmundsen is a qualified chartered building surveyor who has been working in the public sector for the last 8 years. She is currently Shadow Director (Development) and Client Lead (Build) at Exeter City Council and her time there has seen her introduce the Passivhaus standard to the local authority and encourage its use for the City Council’s own new build council housing and commercial properties.

Exeter City Council were an early adopter of the Passivhaus standard

Back in 2009, Exeter City Council were fortunate to have government funding to look into and adopt the Passivhaus standard on a couple of sites as part of their infill redevelopment programme. This resulted in the UK’s first Passivhaus certified multi-residential development, for over 55s flats. Since then they’ve been working to reduce costs to make Passivhaus new build comparable with conventional new build, which is something they achieved with their second generation of Passivhaus council housing which were completed over 3 sites last year. Their fourth generation of Passivhaus, an extra-care scheme of 53 apartments with communal facilities, is about to commence on site and they are preparing to start work next spring on site for a new Passivhaus leisure centre and bus station.

Initially they were attracted to using the standard as a way of addressing fuel poverty, but have come to realise the commercial benefits and value for money that it brings them as landlords. Understanding that they can proactively influence the quality of the buildings, they are now pushing beyond the Passivhaus standard and adopting the German Baubiolgie (building biology) standard and also carrying out research with Exeter University to ensure their buildings are climate ready up to 2080.

“The aspirations of self builders tend to be a little bit diverse to what we can offer them as a City Council”

Local authorities have to keep registers of prospective self builders, and public land that is available to them and over the last 5 years Exeter City Council have attempted to get co-housing and smaller scale housing schemes off the ground, but have found it to be challenging. Generally most of the public land they have available tends to be infill plots so the prospect for self builders of investing their time, money and sweat equity in a plot on an existing larger housing estate, tends not to be attractive.

Emma gives the example of countries like the Netherlands where larger areas of land are carved up and sold as individual serviced plots, which is not something that is common in the UK. She suggests it can be a good idea for self builders to re-think their aspirations and consider living in a more sustainable city centre location which already benefits from enhancements in respect of travel and facilities. She explains there can be opportunities for local authorities to negotiate with volume house builders to ensure that some of the plots within those developments are made available for self builders, for which you could register your interest.

“So I would say that there are opportunities out there but perhaps there needs to be a realignment of self builders’ expectations of what really is there and will be available to you.”

Approach your local authority with a solution

Emma suspects that most local authorities will not be able to offer a huge amount of resources and officer time for helping self build projects get started, so she suggests approaching them with something that appears viable and deliverable. This could mean getting together with a few other self builders as a collective to set out your ask of the authority.

“Because generally speaking a local authority might be in a position to put the land in on a long lease but you might well have to consider ways in which there can be perhaps repayment of that land transfer at a later date, or ways in which that land can be held as an affordable land plot in perpetuity.”

Emma explains that you should do your due diligence and try and build a good understanding of the likelihood of land coming forward for housing, and be mindful of the local authority’s obligations with regard to affordable housing, realising that there will be obligations that still apply to that land, not withstanding the fact that you’re self builders.

“I think it would be time well spent on a self builder to actually examine what the potential constraints are likely to be and to provide some potential solutions.”

From a local authority perspective, they have to look after the best interests of the whole community, which doesn’t necessarily go hand in hand with the motivations of lots of individuals focused on their own separate projects. For this reason Emma suggests it could be worth seeing if you could enter into some sort of joint venture with other self builders to take to the public sector land owner, offering to take on the design, facilitating the development and taking on the project management, but sharing some of their time and resources and look at doing perhaps a mixed tenure scheme so that the public sector get a net return on that land value.

“So I think it’s about working more cooperatively and collaboratively and perhaps thinking that would be an easier way to bring forward development as opposed to just individual self builders pepper-potted here there and everywhere.”

Engage with your local political members

Political members generally speaking are in a strong position to support your cause and encourage some of their officers to be more proactive in helping you realise your ambitions.

Along with speaking to the planning authority and planning officers, Emma suggests approaching housing enabling officers within the local authority as they might be aware of council land available from their dealings with house developers.

Another idea is to speak with local authorities that might be doing development schemes themselves, as they might be more receptive to consider opportunities that are outside the norm.

“I think it’s a very exciting time and, as we were pioneering eight years ago with Passivhaus, I think we need to pioneer new ways of delivering new self build opportunities.”

Find out more

Follow Emma Osmundsen on Twitter

Follow Exeter City Council Housing on Twitter

View the EXEseed Contractors Framework

Read the Exeter City Council Passivhaus development scheme information

National Self Build and Renovation Centre – The Big Green Home Show

Ben will be speaking at the Big Green Home Show on the 8th and 9th October 2016. He’ll again be flying the flag for Passivhaus and sharing his experience of the many that he has seen. We’ll also be holding a House Planning Help meet-up there and will email out details to our subscribers. If you would like to join that mailing list, fill in the details below.

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September 14, 2016
HPH144 : What do you do when you can’t find land?

Three self-builders explain their next steps after struggling to find land upon which to build their new homes.

Interview with Corrine Mitchell

Corrine and her husband first entertained the idea of a self build back in 2005, but put their first offer in on a plot in 2008. The site proved to be problematic with electricity cables running overhead, and they eventually pulled out. It wasn’t until 2013, when they became aware of Graven Hill, that they had finances in place and thought there was a real opportunity. The intention was to use finances in the bank to pay for the land and sell their existing property to cover the costs of the build. They eventually decided that the Graven Hill development wouldn’t be right for them; they wanted to get away from living on an estate, particularly one that could be a building site for the next decade, and it didn’t seem easily suited to building to Passivhaus standard.

The biggest challenges to finding land in their area have been the high cost and sites ideal for a small house with a garden, garage and workshop, being bought by developers to put two dwellings on. Corrine has also found that local land tends to be sold by sealed bids, a system which she feels disadvantaged and frustrated by.

Corrine has learned many lessons from her experience of looking for land. The main one has been how to appraise a site: looking for additional factors that might affect the cost and be problematic, and in future if she found a site without planning permission, she would probably hire a planning consultant. She sees her chances of finding land in the future as relying on word of mouth, getting in before anyone else hears about a plot. Eventually Corrine expects that they might move away from the area to where land is at a price that they are happier to pay, but for the time being she wants to remain local to where their friends and lives currently are.

Corrine’s advice to anyone else looking for land is to be prepared for it to be a time intensive task. You really need to put the work in, registering with estate agents and ringing them all every two or three weeks to see if there’s anything new available.

“Google Earth does come in very handy. You can walk down roads, have a look around, look at what’s nearby. But when you get there often it’s a bit different to what you expect so you’ve got to go and do the research and you’ve got to go and have a good look. Especially for the issues that might cost you money when you come to build.”

Land searches for Corrine and her husband are currently on hold while they take on a renovation project instead. They have bought a small terraced house and are taking their time to do it up, using it as a chance to gain valuable experience that they can eventually put into a self build.

Despite the renovation project, Corrine is still keeping one eye open for land opportunities and says that hopefully next year they will have finished the works, can sell up and start looking for land seriously once again.

Interview with Nigel Banks

Nigel Banks lives in Leeds with his wife and two children and has had challenges finding a suitable plot within an existing established urban area. Initially he was looking for self build plots in a fairly wide area, but eventually decided to narrow it down to within two miles of their eldest son’s primary school.

Largely using Google Maps, cycling and walking the streets, they found two or three potentially viable plots. They approached the Diocese of Leeds, who they discovered were the owners of one plot, only to be told they already had plans for it. These plans, Nigel later discovered, involved an application for 14 houses! Another plot they were interested in ultimately had plans for six flats, offices and basement parking, whereas Nigel had just intended to put on a single house with a small garden.

After two years of searching, Nigel decided to instead build a Passivhaus office in his back garden. Shortly after he started digging the foundations his wife came across a Victorian house, around half a mile away, in need of major renovation. They realised they could refurbish it to near Passivhaus standard and moved in a year ago.

Had they not gone down the refurbishment route, Nigel thinks one option he might have pursued would have been trying to find other like-minded people locally to set up a cohousing project.

Having invested a huge amount of time and energy into their new project, and being fairly happy and settled where they now are, Nigel has shelved plans to try and self build. He emphasises however that the dream to build his own home is still there, though it may be another 15 or 20 years before that can become a reality.

Interview with Rob Rickey

After taking a course in Environmental Design at Cardiff University and later the Passivhaus Designer course, Rob was keen to live in a low energy home.

They wanted to stay close to their existing community where all their friends lived. This limited the search area and meant that they really only saw a handful of opportunities. One was a barn conversion with planning permission, but this was reflected in the price! They also considered developing another site that had planning permission for four dwellings. By selling or renting three they could fund their own build. However, the location wouldn’t have been that quiet as it backed onto a school.

Ultimately they decided they couldn’t afford it and so they looked for a property to retrofit. This was much easier as dozens of opportunities came onto the market each week.

Rob says he’s quite happy in his retrofitted home – where he’s reduced his gas usage by 75% – and has no desire to self build! He can get his fix from his work, designing houses for other people.

Find out more

Follow Nigel Banks on Twitter

Visit the website of Rob Rickey Design

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August 31, 2016
HPH110 : Reflecting on my self-build project – with Ben Adam-Smith
Ben Adam-Smith reviews where he is in his own self-build process and discusses the reasons why there will be some changes to future podcasts.

Ben Adam-Smith

Ben’s personal goal is to create his own energy-efficient home before he turns 40 in August 2016. Despite his best efforts it is looking increasingly unlikely, though not impossible, that he will achieve this target.

Exploring what houses we should be building

When Ben started the podcast over 3 years ago, his aim was to explore what housing we should be building in the 21st century. While this will always be central to the podcast, by staying close to innovation and the people that drive standards forward, Ben has come to the conclusion that there is really a common sense route for the future of house building:

The Passivhaus Standard

This is one we’ve covered many times on the podcast and with so many benefits it just seems logical that this is the way that all buildings will go in the future. While you may not necessarily get it completely right first time with regards to perhaps size, layout, architectural flair, materials etc, it will lead to a higher quality of building such as comfort levels, low heating bills, energy efficiency and air quality.

Co-housing

When Ben visited LILAC and Lancaster co-housing he felt it was easy to see that there’s a lot of sense in this too. It’s about contributing what you’re good at and sharing facilities. In a future where we could be facing bigger problems, it seems sensible to want to try and share those problems and face them as a collective rather than individually.

Decreased reliance on cars

When building new houses and new developments they should all be with a focus on how to get people walking or cycling, rather than relying on cars. It should be about creating hubs where the majority of things we do don’t involve a car.

Issues for the future

Population

With the flow of people between countries likely to be more radical in the future, it is something that globally will need addressing.

Consumerism

As we’re just through the Christmas period, Ben reflects that while he is grateful for the gifts he has received, he sometimes would rather he didn’t have the extra bits of plastic. And instead of frequent holidays and travel, perhaps trying to reduce the number of trips, or concentrate them better.

Sustainable economy

In terms of sustainable economy, it’s about just trying to do what we can as individuals: investing in people and companies more wisely when we can and being careful about the choices we make.

Changes to podcasts

Ben feels that while we don’t know exactly what we should be building in the 21st century, we know a pretty good amount. We should be turning our attention instead to why it isn’t happening.

With the volume house builders, it seems that without government legislation to back it up there just won’t be the changes to standards, as they’re always going to be about maximising profits.

Investors also play a part in this – until people renting houses demand more and have those choices then investors will keep providing the lowest denominator. If more people managed to build their own houses then the markets for some of these other things would naturally shrink.

For now, and while Ben concentrates on getting his own self-build underway, there will be no more podcasts on retrofitting. While retrofit is a huge and important issue which we’ll come back to at some point in the future, for now the podcast focus will be on new-build.

This year the podcasts are also going to focus on the UK. With Ben being based in the UK and having contacts and the ability to go out and find people who are building well, it makes sense to concentrate here. Setting up The Hub was a key goal for Ben last year and in order to develop this and have cohesion with the podcasts there has been a need to start initially by focusing on the UK market. We need to get it fully operational and successful here in the UK first before spreading it beyond. It doesn’t mean we won’t be interviewing experts in other countries, but we will be making sure they are all relevant to self-builders in the UK.

The challenges to self-building

We’re going to be looking at some of the major challenges for self-builders in the UK and see how can we break through some of these.

Finding a plot – having searched for a plot for a year and a half Ben suspects that as he is having problems then other people out there are likely having the same issues.

Finance – how do we make it affordable so that anyone can make it happen?

Planning – trying to understand a little more about the intricacies of the UK planning system.

Some of the forthcoming podcasts will be about finding a quality team for your build. We’ll also be having more case studies and perhaps rather than concentrating on their project as a whole we might focus on individual elements in greater depth.

We welcome your feedback so please do leave us comments below.

The Hub

We’ve recently added a new chapter to the Long Barrow Passivhaus story. In this episode we find out why Alex Baines opted for a raft foundation, look at some of the planning involved, understanding heave and how it was addressed. We’re looking at why Alex has made particular choices while trying to make it all as easy to understand as possible.

We also have a new course on planning permission. We have an interview with Phil Skill, a chief planner that featured on the TV programme “The Planners”. There is also a case study with Kingsley Barraclough on how he successfully achieved planning permission.

As a Hub member there’s a chance to network with other self-builders in the forum.

Find out more

Follow Ben Adam-Smith on Twitter

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January 6, 2016
HPH107 : What Does it Take to Create Sustainable Neighbourhoods? – with Jon Broome
Jon Broome of Jon Broome Architects explains his work with community self-build groups, and the development of a sustainable neighbourhood he is currently involved with in Lewisham.

Interview with Jon Broome

Jon first got involved in self-build projects back in the 1970s with Water Segal, the pioneering designer of lightweight timber construction for self-building. Since then he has continued working with groups in South London and elsewhere building housing co-ops, and is currently involved in a project with a Community Land Trust development in Lewisham.

The Influence of Walter Segal Has Yet to be Fully Realised

Jon estimates there have been up to 300 houses in the UK which have been inspired by Walter Segal’s principles of simple and economical building.

“And that opened up a whole range of possibilities which I think are yet to be realised fully actually.”

Walter’s Way, Lewisham – the first group self build project to use the Segal method of construction

Since the 90s however, interest has waned with what Jon sees as people’s preoccupation with building trends changing, such as pre-fabricated housing or custom building.

In the UK we Struggle to Create Neighbourhoods

Jon is concerned that buildings should perform well, be low energy, sustainable, comfortable, light and airy and well ventilated. These are all things which he says we can do, however in the UK what we are less able to do well is create neighbourhoods which are convivial and support comfortable social living arrangements.

Currently the private sector deliver what a lot of people want and can afford, and the public sector deliver a limited number of affordable homes. Jon says there is a big area in between which doesn’t necessarily satisfy what people want. They tend to be of a price they can’t afford, not very well built, small, not energy efficient and generally not desirable. The idea of sustainable neighbourhoods is that it brings good building together with residents who can have control over the major decisions affecting how much they cost, and how they’re designed and built.

“It’s to do with low energy building. It’s to do with sustainable development. It’s to do with, I don’t know, just living in a convivial way in a city which normal housing arrangements don’t encourage I don’t think.”

A Community Land Trust Might be an Option to Consider

Jon is involved with the RUSS Community Land Trust development in Lewisham. They have recently acquired a site from the local authority in Lewisham and will be making a number of different options available, including affordable rental accommodation, and shared ownership and shared equity dwellings with buy in between 25% and 80% ownership. The Community Land Trust retains some of the equity to ensure that the development remains affordable and that dwellings don’t migrate into the private sector where escalating prices would inevitably follow.

They are encouraging a high degree of self-build because of the benefits it can produce, including significantly reduced costs together with a huge amount of self-confidence and sense of self-achievement from designing and building your own home.

“I think what matters more than anything else is having a feeling of being in control of their destiny and knowing how the building is and how and why it’s designed in the way it is, how it can be changed, developed, improved. It’s just being in touch with your immediate living surroundings.”

As architects for the project, Jon Broome Architects have started by working up ideas of what affordable housing means to who and aligning the cost of people’s housing with their income, rather than with the value on the open market. They are ensuring the houses will be cheap to run and concentrating on the sustainability of the development as a whole with bike provision and shared electric cars. They are making sure it is a mixed community of congenial people who want to live in a supportive environment. And while the self-build approach will reduce costs, it will also create opportunities for people to acquire skills and improve their employment prospects.

They will be taking all of this and translating it into a design brief and make plans for the flats and houses, method of construction (which also needs to be capable of unskilled people on site), contractual arrangements, legal frameworks, financial arrangements, building standards, planning etc.

Satisfaction is Not Prioritised by Developers and Policy Makers

While there are undoubtedly people out there who don’t want to get involved in a process which can be complicated and time consuming and are happy to buy a standard developer home, there are others which generally aren’t catered for who want the satisfaction and long lasting benefits of quality of construction, design and maintenance. For those people generally the opportunities to design and build for themselves are all too rare.

Self-Provision of Housing on the Continent Remains Strong

Jon has recently been to Germany and estimates that over half of housing is of this kind. In Berlin he thinks around 10% of new housing in the city is produced by groups of people getting together to design and commission the housing, but not necessarily building it. The process is aided by the city government which holds regular meetings for interested people, and is encouraged by the financial systems which are willing to lend on schemes that they know are being professionally managed and developed.

Land can be compulsorily purchased by local authorities who then put in the infrastructure and sell it at a profit which gets ploughed back into housing development to groups who then build. There is a fixed price for the land and the successful party is the one that can bring most quality to the development, such as social provision, value for money, quality of dwellings etc.

Jon feels that important lessons can be learned from this continental approach, in terms of how groups and design processes are organised, about communicating and controlling costs effectively.

What Matters is Getting Developments on the Ground That You Can Experience

Jon agrees that this way of living won’t be for everybody, but there’s a significant number of people to whom it suits very well. By getting successful developments on the ground that people can look at and demonstrate what the possibilities are in an urban environment, Jon is hopeful that people will see that there’s something in it.

Jon cites the example of Ashley Vale in Bristol, as being a similar case of people having a vision and determination to improve their housing circumstances.

While the local authority in Lewisham have been supportive, the process of securing land for the development has been lengthy and costly. The site is also not without its difficulties and while the price for the land is not what it would be on the open market, it recognises the social benefits and what will be involved in terms of energy standards and sustainability.

We’re keen to follow how this development progresses, so keep an eye out for part 2 at some point in the future!

Find Out More

Follow Jon Broome Architects on Twitter

Jon Broome Architects

Rural Urban Synthesis Society

Transcript

Download a transcript of the interview with Jon Broome.

Challenging Times on a Build

Ben is keen to hear from other self-builders who, for one reason or another, have hit challenging times on their projects. He would like to collate these experiences in a blog for others who might be facing similar issues and to give encouragement to keep persevering with it! Please get in touch if you would like to be involved.

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November 11, 2015