This was an entry for the RIBA ‘Home of 2030’ competition, where the brief set out an agenda for age-friendly and inclusive living, with low environmental impact while being deliverable and scalable. This proposal sought to subvert the long-accepted repetition of modules synonymous with social housing in the United Kingdom.

 

The dominant typology of the terrace house, while demonstrating a desirable human scale, often creates dense urban environments with long, impermeable street facades. This results in a poor sense of community, and a challenging street environment for the elderly.

 

To solve this, our strategy interrogates the terrace house block and intervenes with the element that causes the unrelenting repetition of the street facade: the party wall. At strategic points, breaks are introduced by splitting the party wall, signposted with new inserted V-shaped structures.

 

These V structures act as foundations which residents can build new structures upon. Overtime, with extensions, additional balconies and roofs, each V starts to take on a unique physical character. These spaces can also become communal kitchens, elderly day centres, co-working spaces or childcare centres according to the needs of its neighbours. This is crucial for age-friendly living, where the elderly use and contribute to this small community space, and are better able to recognise their place in the community through their participation with it.