Our Housing and How We Live

Mike has recently completed a PhD looking at the barriers to innovation in house building – why is it that we all know what we need to do (build more houses) and the benefits that will bring (more affordable housing), but still seem unable to deliver? Are there some less obvious reasons why our housing industry is in crisis, and if so what will it take to expose the real barriers?

Three years ago while Chair of East Midlands’ Royal Society of Arts, Jeanne argued that local people pooling resources to design and build intergenerational cohousing could help address challenging societal issues, including increasingly precarious and self-employment, Generation Rent, Active Third Agers, loneliness and provision of care. Nottingham Cohousing is preparing to progress two community-led housing initiatives. What are the opportunities and challenges? Can cohousing provide credible housing solutions that address changes in the ways we are living?

We may not ‘want’ tall buildings but major cities ‘need’ them. High-rise design is about coping with issues of very high population and urbanisation, in large city centres, connected to mass transport. With climate change, their energy performance is critical and they must be bioclimatic wherever possible. We must consider mixed use and social questions:- how do you reintroduce social space and nature, and care for the elderly and children in a high-rise?