F.U.N.N.E.L
A IS FOR ARCHITECTURE, WSP, Spacehub
Our idea for F.U.N.N.E.L comes from a deep frustration about how housing development happens in the U.K.
Rather than seeking to densify and improve what already exists, the default solution is to expand into the countryside, build more roads and increase the pressure on the existing physical and social infrastructure. Residents resist development and justifiably fail to see what is in it for them.
While architects and urban designers are comfortable in larger towns and cities, the countryside is the realm of the mass housebuilder.
What if we could explore the economic incentives and try to find solutions to densify and improve the hundreds of thousands of rural housing estates? What if the cycle of today’s new residents becoming tomorrow’s NIMBYs can be broken?
Melksham represents every small town that has grown exponentially since the 1970s and is slated to keep growing at an unsustainable rate.
For our proposals we studied three typical expansion neighbourhoods with different typologies: semi-detached houses in Kenilworth Gardens with the potential to deliver 254 new homes, Primrose Drive’s detached houses which could offer 186 new infill homes and the bungalows around Savernake Avenue which could be densified with 102 homes. An initial townwide study tells us that we could accommodate an extra 3000 homes using these strategies.
F.U.N.N.E.L has two key components: a loan programme which would allow residents to finance the building of new homes on their land and pre-approved designs that work to optimize the available sites while keeping a consistent language throughout the neighbourhood.
A IS FOR ARCHITECTURE
Duarte Lobo Antunes, Director (Architect)
Jack William Taylor, Associate Director (Architect)
WSP
Rahul Patalia, Head of Urban Regeneration
Dan Hagan, Director (Structures) Modern Methods of Construction Lead for Property & Buildings
Spacehub
Rosie Sargen, Associate (Landscape Architect)