top of page
A'foldable Housing

Using "silliness" as a design thinking tool.

A’foldable Housing is a play on words for affordable housing. We use creative workshopping techniques to engage various stakeholders of the housing industry with unforeseen perspectives. Our intent was to use off the wall ideas and speculative environment building  to widen participants frame of scope with regards to housing solutions, seeing the same problems in a new light.

Before getting to this point, our research took us to a healthcare and homelessness conference, to Lewisham county council and to three community support groups that helped people who had become homeless.

We volunteered our services, cooking and cutting hair, in exchange for conversation and spoke to the different groups of professionals to hear what they were doing about the problem, why they were doing it and to hear what they thought could be done. 

​

The intentions of services provided from the top down were clearly out of sync with what those who needed help expected from them. This seemed to a communication problem mixed the dilemma of compromising individual needs with scale and available funding. However, for the people trying to find a place to live, this came across as a system that was deliberately designed to repress them whilst hiding behind the false pretence of 'caring'.

​

This three way balancing act that causes ingrained distrust is a turbulent problem that needs to be addressed systematically, especially at the point of service with the user. But we noticed another problem that actually concerned us even more. 

There was a shared belief from everyone we spoke to that any efforts were futile:

That this problem could not be fixed.

This seemed really sad. These were people who were applying themselves to help but had been subdued and diminished by the legislative and capital barriers that had grated them down over the years. We hoped that by generating unthinkable, ridiculous solutions, and setting a childlike scene of imaginative freedom that we could reinvigorate the field of possibility for new ideas and open the Overton Window. To give others the opportunity to be forward thinking in their designs rather than being subject to standard discourse. 

​

I mention standard discourse here because from developers to the council, each group seemed to have gotten stuck in the groove of their rehearsed arguments. This is something we wanted to break away from.

the overton  window

We we looked at a few different subjects for the workshop: development laws, home sharing, and place finding services. Development sparked the most debate, so that became the motive. 

​

We wanted to get council members, developers and a few public participants in the same room, so that we could utilise the insight of experts and because it was the professional stakeholders who would gain the most from a fresh perspective. But unfortunately we couldn't get any professional participant involved. (Maybe with more time outside of the confines of university this could have been different.)

​

To subvert the repetition of rehearsed routes of discourse and taking the participants out of character and into a naive state of creative freedom where they each have to argue both sides of the  argument without bias.This was achieved by using a fictional space where participants needed to be provided housing solutions for different neighbouring animals with different needs. Followed by extrapolation of core values and then bringing it back to reality to realise how these principals effect real people in an urban landscape and collaging their final proposals.

The fictional realm

​

Extrapolation of values

​

Back to reality

​

World Building

​

Landscape of change 

(1) Participant chose an animal and then became that animal. They were tasked to consider the unique needs of sed animal then quickly draw their animal house. Moving onto a bigger sheet of paper they next had to work together to draw a landscape/community that catered for all their specific needs.

(2) Armed with their learnings from the last exercise they had to extrapolate the core values and creative infrastructure from their community and (3) apply them to the context of a human city with many more inhabitants. What would this look like, how could you apply your ideas to real world problems, what is happening in this fictional world?

(4) Now they could use collage to illustrate this narrative and describe (5) what current day problems they were addressing with their speculation + how could this be implemented in real life.​

Example proposals
Duplicate London
Unthinkable -

Number 10

What if the foundations were in place to repeat every building in London on top of its self?

We imagine an elevated pathways connects the rooftop gardens of our new city. 

Housing supply overtakes demand - property prices decrease, land tax can be introduced to restore assets, protected land such as parks and wild areas remain protected and there is a massive employment surge created by rapid change. But, what of the ghetto's lurking in the shadow? In the forest many animals and plants live below the canopy in a beautiful speckled light, yet, they are different animals from the ones living in the tree line... Could clever reflective properties or kinaesthetic smart infrastructure create a new kind of beauty in the streets that only enjoy sunlight at midday?   

Ridiculous - 
Saturate London

All the spaces between detached houses, or any other buildings, are made into micro homes, an excellent way to start your journey as a property owner. Yes, we mean every space.

Because the space between each property is predetermined, off-site construction could speed up the process and reduce costs.

Some area's in London have more space than others, how does that space reflect current property prices and how might this scheme disrupt the market? Could this have the potential to give buyers & renters the freedom to live in their desired area?

Radical -
Her Majesties homelessness scheme

Once a property is vacant 11 years it becomes part of the crown estate

The crown estate owns 312 vacant properties in london

We estimate this equates to 546 flats

  • Properties already exist

  • Minimal cost

  • Properties are often large and high quality

  • Housing families who could spend years on social housing waiting lists

  • Properties in affluent areas

  • Good transport links for work or family

  • Sets a high bar for social housing

  • Social influence

  • Being in the Queen's name generates public awareness

Incentivising Business' to build into Air space
Acceptable -

These images come from the a set of flat pack buildings that we gave away to the public in return for voting on what proposal they thought was feasible.

It’s extremely profitable to develop into airspace.

The extension can improve building quality; better insulation, rooftop gardens, solar panels

The profitability of these developments may prompt larger properties owners such as supermarkets to only develop luxury housing to increase capital. However

this can be combated with policies like: inclusionary zoning which establishes quotas for new developments to sell or rent at submarket prices, in return for a density bonus allowing them to build over regulatory limits. And also because companies such as supermarkets are public facing they would be held more accountable by the public to supply the designated affordable houses. This could even help their brand due to having an USP.

The workshop simultaneously educates the public to the causes of homelessness, and inspires a new alternate way of thinking about creating more affordable homes. 

The outcomes for which are being displayed on our blog 'Housing Thirst' where we are using as a platform to spread the idea's and encourage others to think in a similar way.

bottom of page