5 ways to transform the future of homes and communities
We explore the innovative trends and projects that give us hope for the future of housing
A home is one of our most basic needs: one that we share with 7.6 billion and rising of our fellow humans. So when it comes to creating homes and communities that are smart, sustainable and fit for the future, the world is in urgent need of creative leadership.
That’s why it’s so inspiring to see forward-thinking businesses creating commercial solutions to vital housing challenges. These pioneers are rethinking how and where we live, and proving that bricks and mortar can be infused with vision, imagination and innovation.
Here are five of our favourite innovations in homes and housing: the trends and projects giving us hope that businesses will play their part in cracking the global challenge of decent housing for all.
1. 3D printed homes
What if designing and building a new home could be as simple as tinkering on your laptop and then pressing “print”? Even better, what if a new home cost less than a new car?
Non-profit New Story has taken us one step closer to making this dream a reality. Frustrated by slow progress in its mission of delivering decent housing in the developing world, it searched for an exponential solution. It partnered with construction technology firm ICON to create a world first: a home that can be 3D printed in just 24 hours at the cost of $4000.
The 350 square foot prototype was unveiled in Austin, Texas this year, becoming the first 3D printed house in the US to meet local housing regulations. New Story now plans to build the first community of 3D printed homes in El Salvador in 2019. Communities are also able to use ICON’s software to customise their homes to meet specific needs.
This proves once again that tech innovation doesn’t have to start with the elite and then trickle down. As WIRED put it: “If New Story succeeds, the first people to live in a 3D-printed town won’t be the technologists or the futurists of Silicon Valley. They’ll be people in the world’s poorest regions, who most need a roof over their heads”.
New Story’s printed homes might not yet be suitable for UK housing. But the non-profit recognised that we need a quantum leap in affordability, speed, and quality to reach families in need exponentially faster. With more innovation and risk-taking, we hope that our own house builders will be able to get to the point where 3D printing can produce homes that suit UK lifestyles and needs.
2. Co-living
What do you do with more people and less space? Learn to share better.
Co-living sees neighbours share facilities like living rooms, kitchens and workspaces under one roof, in order to cut the cost of living and enjoy more opportunities to socialise with others. It’s an eye-catching trend, but so far only a brave few have embraced full-time co-living as a lifestyle.
With this in mind, Copenhagen innovation lab SPACE10 and New York design studio Anton & Irene created a playful project to pose the question: what would you be willing to share?
Over 7000 people took part in the One Shared House 2030 project by filling out an online application form for a hypothetical co-living space opening in 2030, indicating whether they would be willing to share kitchens, workspaces, smart devices, childcare and self-driving cars.
The results have been shared on an open-source, anonymous basis, so that anyone engaged in creating the future of co-living can dream and design better.
3. The next generation of modular homes
Imagine a home that can pop up quickly, grow and shrink according to residents’ needs, and even “up sticks” and move across the country to where it’s needed most.
This “flatpack future” has massive potential to reduce the energy, raw materials and waste that goes into providing us with a roof over our heads. Thanks to advances in CAD technology, 3D printing and engineered timber, today’s modular homes are a world away from post-war prefabs. Faced with a growing population, an acute shortage of homes and increasingly mobile and migratory careers and lifestyles, modular homes open up a whole new world of possibility.
Legal & General Modular Homes is just one of the players looking to disrupt the home building industry by providing precision engineered, factory manufactured houses. L&G claims its homes are better quality, more energy and time efficient and cost less than conventional methods.
Best of all, modular homes can create local jobs. That’s because they don’t rely on highly-skilled labour — which is in short supply — and can instead be built by local people with no prior construction experience.
No wonder that forward-looking housing associations are creating innovative prototypes like RHP’s LaunchPod, a 26sqm one bedroom apartment made in L&G’s factory.
4. Internet of Things
The internet of things (IoT) is about more than self-stocking fridges and tweeting toasters. Low-cost sensors, cloud computing and big data techniques have revolutionised our ability to collect and comprehend a vast array of real-time data. Used correctly, it’s a springboard to improve services and design behaviour change interventions.
This gives social landlords a huge opportunity to use IoT to get closer to the heartbeat of the houses they provide and the people they serve.
Flagship Group, for example, has partnered with a number of local firms in Ipswich to create a pilot IoT scheme that featured an innovative thermostat designed with social landlords in mind. Already, its humidity sensors have identified flats with abnormal moisture levels, allowing Flagship to dispatch surveyors and tackle damp and mould problems before they arise.
To get tenants on board, the IoT element was bundled with more traditional digital services such as free wifi, smart locks and open-access CCTV of communal areas. This had the added benefit of enhancing security, increasing the use of digital customer service channels from 15% to 70% and reducing arrears by making it easier for tenants to access housing benefit online.
Making it easier to keep homes in good nick and reducing energy and waste bills are the obvious easy wins. But there are bigger prizes on the horizon when it comes to looking after tenants, as sensors can have all kinds of applications in healthcare, social services and community cohesion.
Whether it’s dealing with noise and anti-social behaviour complaints more quickly, or alerting the relatives or carers of elderly or vulnerable tenants when their routines unexpectedly change, the internet of things can and should be as much about tenants as it is about buildings.
It’s a pity, then, that less than 50% of housing associations rate IoT as important to their overall strategies, and only 6% have a clear IoT strategy in place. It’s easy to get lost in the hype of smart cities and seemingly endless possibilities of IoT, but it’s ultimately about finding an innovation strategy that will get you closer to customers and what they want and need.
5. Community energy
As the scorching, sunshine-laden summer of 2018 has proved, roofs are valuable resources. If social landlords could capture the solar power potential of the millions of social homes in the UK, it could drive a nationwide renewable energy revolution.
That’s why it was exciting to see Solarplicity ink a £1 billion deal last September to install solar panels on the roofs of 800,000 social housing homes in England and Wales over the next five years.
The scheme will see tenants receive free solar panels, saving them £296 a year on average in power bills. Social landlords, meanwhile, receive a cash investment for community projects, or can join an profit share scheme — all while reducing their carbon footprint. The deal is expected to create 1000 jobs, with Solarplicity planning to train military veterans as solar panel installers.
All in all, it’s an excellent example of a commercial partnership that benefits tenants, social landlords, the wider community and the planet.
Inspired? For help in crafting a strategy that will connect innovative technology to real customer need, get in touch with us to learn more about the Future Housing Lab, a new collaborative network for housing innovation and business transformation. Call us at 01225 780000 or email steve@thehouse.co.uk.
