Flat-pack community idea impresses green housing judges

A ‘flat-pack community’ designed by three MMU students has been awarded first prize and £3,000 in the inaugural Nationwide Sustainable Housing Awards.

The final year Landscape Architecture students - Hannah Smith (21), Joseph Thompson (23) and James Watts (24) - beat off strong competition from UK and international architecture and design students to secure the win.

Their winning entry goes on display at the CUBE Gallery on Portland Street in Manchester this week, until 18th April.

Community toolkit

The theme for the competition, launched in partnership with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), was ‘Sustainable Housing in an Urban Environment’. The talented trio’s winning entry of a regeneration strategy for communities and neighbourhoods and was described as ‘creative’ and ‘witty’ by judges.

MMU student Hannah Smith comments: “We took 1970s housing estates as the inspiration for our project and looked at how we could give those low-rise, two-storey homes a new identity. We wanted to do something a bit different and so developed a toolkit offering a variety of features that communities could apply to their areas. These ranged from environmental features, such as rainwater harvesting and movement sensitive lights, to maximising the use of outdoor and shared spaces to build community relations.”

Developing stable communities

Ian Fisher, Senior Lecturer at MMU, said: “I’m really proud of the students, especially as the competition was geared towards architecture and building design. Landscape Architecture focuses on the spaces around buildings, rather than the buildings themselves, and their win just shows how important the discipline is. Sustainability isn’t just about solar panels and renewable energy, it’s about developing socially, economically and culturally stable communities.”

The students worked towards the competition at MMU’s Creative LAB, a voluntary unit that enables students to develop their portfolios and explore areas of interest outside of their degree programme.

Two A1 boards of design work and a technical report were submitted to judges, who included members from the National Housing Federation and UK Green Building Council, and prizes were awarded by Wayne Hemingway at a ceremony in London.

Find out more about the RIBA Nationwide Sustainable Housing Awards Student Competition Exhibition.