Despite being four letters, we become accustomed to from a young age – ‘Are we home yet?’ – home is not as simple to define as it first seems. Is it a room, house, street or neighbourhood? A number, some words and a code on an envelope? Or is it a space, a feeling, a group of people? Even if we accept the multitude of definitions, the intrinsic link between architecture, architects, and the creation of home is undeniable.
This has been seen in dialogue around the UK’s recent General Election, with architects pushing the prospects of what home could be, as the new government pledged 1.5million new homes, numbers not seen for decades. This is further to the increase in alternative modes of living, such as live/workspaces, and the nationwide rise of co-living developments.
However, the delivery of this version of home – the physical ‘bricks and mortar’ – presents a conflict for the contemporary profession, recognising the need to do so but also the depleting global resources with which to do it. To deliver the scale of new homes will lead to significant carbon expenditure, furthering the climate emergency. As architects we have an opportunity – and a professional duty – to think imaginatively and for the future.
This is the starting point where Alexandra Francis, now at Bennetts Associates, and I positioned our award-winning thesis project in our final year of study at the Sheffield School of Architecture. ‘Re-housing Manchester’ explores the creative reuse of redundant inner-city building stock into housing which responds to the innate search for the individuality of home, and its relationship with building a sustainable lifestyle.