Lugard Road, SE15
Southwark, London Completed 33 x 20sq.m. Genuinely Affordable Housing for Homeless Young People
Following a series of meetings with a national homelessness charity, we were appointed to help with a programme designed to assist young people, who have a history or who are at risk of homelessness, to live independently.
Using off-site modular construction techniques, we have designed self-contained 20sqm micro-living flats for these young people. The philosophy of the scheme is predicated on providing a new type of medium-term transitional housing at a cost of up to one third of a person's earnings.
The landmark scheme for this project is located in Southwark, transforming a site already owned by the charity, into 33 of these modular homes for young people with low or no support needs. Architecturally, two three-storey blocks have been designed, creating a safe space in between for landscaping and external amenity, as well as providing external deck access to the modules.
Each module, given the limits on space to provide a critical mass of young people on site as a self-sustaining community, and the financial burdens of the charity throughout and as we emerge from the pandemic, has to provide self-contained living and privacy for each occupant.
As such, careful consideration of the internal spaces has been critical. Each flat has a compact toilet, and then an open-plan space with the potential to carve off the separate bedroom space from a kitchen, living and dining space. The living space benefits from a practical layout with all of the furniture required for living, eating, and having a few friends over. With a Juliet balcony facing either east or west, bringing light into the modules.
Clad in a regular panelised pattern (with all relevant fire measures incorporated from the outset), which disguises the modular nature of the structures behind, the scheme secured unanimous approval at a Southwark Planning Sub-Committee meeting, and following a tender process is shortly to be commencing on site.
Drone Video Footage Credit: Joe Ramsey, Flying Robots