Alternative Housing curated by Oliver Wainwright
Oliver Wainwright is the architecture and design critic of the Guardian. He trained as an architect at the University of Cambridge and the Royal College of Art, and worked at OMA, muf, and the Mayor of London’s Architecture and Urbanism Unit.
What would London look like if housing was no longer a commodity, but simply a place to live? How would it feel if streets were used not to park cars, but for children to play, and to grow flowers and vegetables together? What could life be like if we pooled our resources, shared our amenities, and knew our neighbours? The projects I’ve selected present an alternative vision for how we might live together, ranging from co-housing and community land trusts, to sociable housing for older people, to neighbours who decided to get together and built their homes themselves.
Fifteen years in the making, Church Grove is London’s biggest ever community-led housing project – and an astonishing testament to the willpower of the residents, who have achieved it against all the odds. Occupying a leftover plot at the end of a cul-de-sac of Victorian terraces, backing on to the concrete-sided Ravensbourne river, the complex has the look of a treehouse crossed with a climbing frame. The apartments – which include a mix of different tenures, designed to remain affordable forever to local people – are joined by a pair of elevated walkways which wrap across the facades, forming wide shared decks, shading the south-facing windows and framing views of a big silver birch and a playground, open to the public. Communal facilities include a shared laundry and office space, as well as a timber-famed community hub, which hosts everything from local choir practice to the nascent School of Community-led Housing.
2. Walter’s Way
Built in the 1980s by a plucky band of Lewisham residents, Walter’s Way was one of the capital’s earliest experiments in community-led, self-build housing, and it provided the key inspiration for Church Grove. It was the radical vision of the German architect Walter Segal, who said that anyone could build their own house, as long as they could cut a straight line. Segal’s straightforward approach to building, using wooden post-and-beam construction on a modular grid of standard dimensions, did away with the messy complications of wet trades like cement and plaster, and allowed infinite variation and flexibility in how people’s homes were laid out. The resulting community feels like a slice of Scandinavia, a jumble of wooden-framed homes tumbling down the hillside, framing lush green gardens, with plenty of playful, ad-hoc additions added over the years.
3. Nubia Way
Inspired by Walter’s Way nearby, Nubia Way in Downham was Europe’s largest black-led self-build housing project when it was built in 1997 – resisting racist attacks by the National Front at the time. Looking like a little alpine resort, the 13 timber-framed chalets are the work of Fusions Jameen, a self-build cooperative of African-Caribbean Londoners. Designed with Architype architects, who had worked with Segal himself, the homes featured radical environmental features for the time, like recycled insulation and sedum grass roofs. At the core of the model was the idea of “sweat equity” – by working between 20 and 40 hours each week, and totalling more than 1000 hours, self-builders earned a security equity share and rental discount. The homes are held in perpetuity by a housing association to rent securely to people in housing need. This year, visitors will be treated to a new sculpture garden and photo exhibition.
4. Glenkerry House
Designed by the Hungarian-born modernist architect Ernő Goldfinger in the 1970s, Glenkerry House might be the less famous younger sibling of the Balfron tower next door – but it represents a much more interesting and socially sustainable model. While the council tenants of the Balfron tower were evicted, and the flats recently scrubbed up for private sale, Glenkerry has been managed by its residents from the beginning, who collectively form the Glenkerry Co-operative Housing Association. The “community leasehold” model means that each buyer purchases their lease at 50% of the market price (and must also sell at 50%), while the self-governing model means that the usual extortionate service charges and maintenance fees can be kept to a minimum. It is not only a striking brutalist beauty, but a radical way of keeping these flats affordable, and nurturing a stable, attentive community that cares about the building’s upkeep.
5. Mount Pleasant
In the hands of one of London’s best housing architects, Peter Barber, this former Victorian workhouse was transformed into a hostel for over 50 homeless people in 2014, laid out around a beautiful sunny courtyard. It is a clever palimpsest of old and new, retaining much of the original building, but making strategic stitches and slices, with new additions highlighted with different types of brick and render. The H-shaped plan of the original hostel resulted in two cramped courtyards and included separate wings for men and women that were no longer necessary. The architects removed the central section to create a large central courtyard that functions as the main circulation space and social area, accessed through arched doors from a tiny lane. It is a place which encourages social interaction, with direct access to a laundry, shared kitchens, a consulting room and the apartments which surround it. An oasis of calm and contemplation in the middle of the city.
6. Appleby Blue
The word almshouse might conjure images of medieval paupers living a monastic existence, squirrelled away behind high-gated walls. But Appleby Blue has been conceived as a lively social hub for older residents and the wider community. Another remarkable urban oasis, the brick building contains a tranquil timber-lined courtyard, dotted with mature ginkgo trees and a trickling water feature. Designed by Witherford Watson Mann, the form was inspired by the historic galleried coaching inns along Borough High Street, which were often used for Elizabethan theatre, and it creates a similarly active, social setting, with apartments spilling on to broad decks that line the courtyard. A big bay window faces the street, providing a space for residents to engage with the outside world, and provide views of activities going on in the communal space. It’s a compelling shop window for what an enriching later life can look like, hosting yoga sessions, dance classes and film nights.
7. A House for Artists
Standing as a jaunty concrete castle on the edge of Barking town centre, the House for Artists is a beacon of what flexible, low-cost and energy-efficient housing should be like. Designed by Apparata, and developed by the council and arts charity Create, the block contains homes for 12 artists. In exchange for reduced rent, they deliver free creative programmes for the wider neighbourhood through a street-facing glass-walled community hall and outdoor exhibition space on the ground floor. The light-flooded flats are accessed off wide shared decks, which have become sociable gardens, while clever details like openable partition walls mean that some flats can be connected for co-living or big parties. Taking inspiration from European models, the flats also do away with corridors and pokey rooms, instead providing open-plan flexible space, and allowing residents to build partitions if they see fit. As artists are increasingly priced out of London, this project shows a way to keep them here, and engaged with their communities.
8. Somers Town: The Housing Story
Radicals, reformers and rebels! The history of Somers Town is a fascinating story of bold approaches to the question of social housing, which will be explored in this immersive walk and performance. Organised by community-led collective, A Space for Us – People’s Museum Somers Town, the walk will incorporate fragments of a musical about the life of one of the pioneering reformers in Somers Town, Fr Basil Jellicoe. A series of lively vignettes will be performed at various locations around the area, and in St Mary’s Parish Church, followed by a workshop on the future of Somers Town, in view to it becoming a Conservation Area for its radical history of social housing. The original 1930s housing here was based on an ethos of “housing is not enough”, emphasising that a community is created not just with just bricks and mortar, but companionship, social life, and celebrations of culture – just like this event!
