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Designing better affordable homes

There are challenges when building affordable housing (apart from the problem in getting it built at all) such as creating something of high quality that has character that will be attractive to those that live there both inside and out.

Someone who has been succeeding in doing this is Peter Barber.

There is an exhibition of his work at the Design Museum from late October 2018 to the end of January 2019.

https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/future-exhibitions/peter-barber-100-mile-city-and-other-stories

 

Oliver Wainwright wrote a long piece in the Guardian recently - in it he said:

"one of the most original architects working today. Over the past decade he has built a reputation for his ingenious reinventions of traditional house types and his ability to craft characterful chunks of city out of unpromising sites. Where the rest of us might see a sliver of useless verge or a bit of leftover car park, Barber can imagine a row of back-to-backs or a cluster of cottages. He is a master of humane high-density, designing that rare thing: new housing that feels in tune with the grain of London, in the form of neither alienating slabs nor tacky towers, without resorting to pastiche."

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/oct/08/washing-line-warrior-the-architect-who-wants-to-get-the-neighbours-singing-peter-barber-social-housing

Take a look at the buildings that have gone up around Acton over recent years and decide if you think any of them would justify an award. Let us know what you think via the feedback map on the front page of this site.