REACH Homes
Jon Johnson, Strip the Willow
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7-min TED-style summary talk about building affordable low carbon homes from shipping containers.
Talk held in May 2017 at the 'Changing Systems: Not Just Changing Lightbulbs' workshop. |
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Talk summary:
Jon describes this project as “unintentionally cutting-edge”. It’s a striking innovation in the direction of zero carbon, which has the potential to “disrupt markets”, in particular the house-building industry which is “constipated”, as Jon puts it, and has little incentive to innovate in low-carbon directions in the UK today. A number of other innovative low-carbon designs have failed to 'gain traction' to date. Meanwhile, others are aimed only at the high end of the market.
So what can be done for the thousands of people on low-to-medium incomes, who on present trends may never own their own home, and have to continue renting privately?
Using shipping containers as the framework, REACH Homes has built a prototype 1-bedroom studio which will retail at £35,000. It will be a world-first Passivhaus-certified development of this kind. The 2-bedroom model will retail at £65,000. Jon is working with Sheffield City Council and a local housing association, and he is confident that there could be 600 – 800 of these homes ordered within twelve months.
Legal protection means that these homes cannot be bought up by landlords, but instead will remain available in the 'affordable niche' of the housing market. Co-housing models of ownership are also being explored.
This is a striking example of a potentially 'system-changing' innovation. In Theory U terms (see Adam Howard's presentation), could it be something “the future is calling for”? If it is, it will be very interesting to see what happens next as the project moves from prototyping to the 'scaling up' stage.
Jon describes this project as “unintentionally cutting-edge”. It’s a striking innovation in the direction of zero carbon, which has the potential to “disrupt markets”, in particular the house-building industry which is “constipated”, as Jon puts it, and has little incentive to innovate in low-carbon directions in the UK today. A number of other innovative low-carbon designs have failed to 'gain traction' to date. Meanwhile, others are aimed only at the high end of the market.
So what can be done for the thousands of people on low-to-medium incomes, who on present trends may never own their own home, and have to continue renting privately?
Using shipping containers as the framework, REACH Homes has built a prototype 1-bedroom studio which will retail at £35,000. It will be a world-first Passivhaus-certified development of this kind. The 2-bedroom model will retail at £65,000. Jon is working with Sheffield City Council and a local housing association, and he is confident that there could be 600 – 800 of these homes ordered within twelve months.
Legal protection means that these homes cannot be bought up by landlords, but instead will remain available in the 'affordable niche' of the housing market. Co-housing models of ownership are also being explored.
This is a striking example of a potentially 'system-changing' innovation. In Theory U terms (see Adam Howard's presentation), could it be something “the future is calling for”? If it is, it will be very interesting to see what happens next as the project moves from prototyping to the 'scaling up' stage.