EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - Entries sought for green housing design competition

Entries sought for green housing design competition

13-02-2007

Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation, North Hertfordshire Homes, and the Royal Institute of British Architects, are organising “Tomorrow’s Garden City: A Sustainable Approach to Modern Living”. This housing design competition should result in high-quality, environmentally friendly, groundbreaking housing in Letchworth Garden City. The competition is open to both practitioners and academics. The closing date for submitting entries is 31 May 2007.

Letchworth Garden City is the world's first Garden City, created at the turn of the last Century, based on the vision of inventor and social reformer, Ebenezer Howard. Howard’s theories, first published in 1898 in his book “Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform”, became the blueprint for new communities across the globe throughout the twentieth century. Letchworth was Howard’s first tangible expression of “Tomorrow”, a community that combined the comforts of the town with the health and beauty of the country.

Objectives of the competition are bring forward a series or selection of housing designs for implementation in Letchworth Garden City capable of:

providing a range of property types and sizes for sale or rent to local people at affordable prices
achieving a specific energy benchmark
achieving low annual running costs, low lifetime costs, and generally value for money
incorporating attractive features and architecture which reflect the town’s status as the world's first Garden City
social sustainability to include adaptability, flexibility, quality, smart houses etc.

The competition:

seeks to inspire and encourage you to bring forward proposals for low-cost, affordable homes for the Garden City that combine imagination, innovation and environmental vision whilst remaining sympathetic to the principles and pioneering zeal of the Garden City.
is not site specific albeit the sponsors have several non-town centre sites they own in mind, which, subject to planning permission, they wish to work with selected design teams to build some of the designs submitted.

Source: Tomorrow's Garden City

Links
For more information, please visit Tomorrow’s Garden City website

back