Rural Urban Synthesis Society’s Post

Our Church Grove scheme is reviewed in this brilliant article by Chris Foges in RIBA Journal. He tells the story of founder Kareem Dayes, who conceived the idea of a community-led project. He and a team of volunteers worked with Jon Broome, Architype, and Shepheard Epstein Hunter and Lewisham Council to turn a derelict patch of land into 36 homes. The article describes the development as: "A pair of conjoined four-storey blocks with crinkly tin facades and splashes of colour around the windows, nestled among trees, is more Amsterdam or Berlin than New London Vernacular. The difference is not just skin-deep. As a community-led housing development incorporating elements of co-design and self-build, Church Grove is a rather utopian project realised through the creativity and dedication of architects, residents and activists." "Some self-finishers took up tools and others hired tradesmen, but all those I spoke to appreciated the chance to shape their homes. For the architects and RUSS leaders, this is just one of the benefits of even limited self-build. Jon Broome talks of empowerment. ‘It engenders a sense of confidence in ordinary people that they can achieve things’, " The organisations that made the scheme possible include Lewisham Council Greater London Authority National Community Land Trust Network, Big Issue Invest Triodos Bank CDS Co-operatives Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) The Tudor Trust CO-OP EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC Locality Big Lottery Fund The Funding Network community led housing london Department for Local Government Span Charitable Trust The Screwfix Foundation https://lnkd.in/egReubhK #CommunityLedHousing #LondonHousing

Nillumbik Shire Council's approach to the Brougham Street co-housing project is emblematic of the overly conservative and rigid approach ingrained in Victoria's planning system. This project ticked every box that NIMBYs claim to care about, yet it was still opposed and blocked by a homeowner-captured local council and resident groups. It's frustrating that some councils continue to approach non-market housing with the same scepticism they take towards for-profit projects. Via Abundant Housing Network Australia, we noted that non-market housing models must be protected and shepherded through local councils. The fact that innovative non-market housing still struggles to get across the line during a housing crisis is absolutely damning of our planning system. We need to start saying 'yes'! https://lnkd.in/gia6D4Gc

We're so excited to share this! You may have seen us talking about our new move-on property, well,… here it is! 🏠 Regram @cullinan_studio: "The Branches ‘Stepping Stones’ house will help people rebuild their lives after experiencing homelessness. Designed for occupants transitioning from hostel accommodation to fully independent living, the house needs to be affordable, safe, and to foster in its residents a sense of pride and confidence. That means very particular needs in terms of security, layout, and facilities. But most challenging from a technical point of view for the renovation of this large Victorian house of multiple occupancy (HMO), is the need for low energy consumption to keep the residents’ bills to a minimum. In the course of identifying and addressing those needs, we discovered new and groundbreaking applications for Passivhaus design principles, which we believe can inspire and inform not only similar HMO projects, but also low energy retrofits of period properties of any kind. In this article, we look at the challenges we faced with project, and three key elements that helped us to overcome them: https://buff.ly/3NKT888 " 📋 Thank you to @cullinan_studio, and the many many partners, supporters, contributors, and donators that have helped make our dreams reality through innovative and modern ways to tackle homelessness, break the cycle of homelessness, and continue to offer an excellent resettlement service to those who need it. More detailed post to come at a later date thanking everyone properly! ❤️ #homelessness #supportservices #mentalhealth #moveonproperty #providingshelter #moveonproperty #news #walthamforest #resettlementcharity #resettlement #housedesign #architects #passivhaus #houserenovation #retrofit #charity

In exactly one month's time, we come together to mark World Homeless Day. This is a day of global shared commitment to ending homelessness and alleviating the poverty and distress of people experiencing homelessness. It is fitting then to share that I will be speaking on pro-manchester's annual Property & Regeneration Lunch on World Homeless Day, 10.10.24. There is no current housing solution sufficient to tackle homelessness or truly eradicate the need for rough sleeping. And, though housing may not be the only answer it is certainly a significant part of the puzzle. Housing must be front and centre for any meaningful industry or policy conversation on tackling homelessness, and supporting a flourishing and thriving community. I look forward to reflecting on the panel what actionable strategies and collaborative efforts are needed to ensure everyone has access to safe and affordable housing, and will lean on conversations had with industry leaders at an event we co-hosted with AECOM and Clear Futures on this very matter. If you've not booked on, take a look below. https://lnkd.in/egbTJsRB For today? I'm off to join many in Manchester for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority's event, 'Putting Housing First: Lessons from Greater Manchester and Beyond'. The homelessness and housing crises are twinned, and tackling it, to borrow words from our Patron at Greater Manchester Mayor's Charity, and Mayor of Greater Manchester, the solution must be 'Homes + Hope'. Together, we can and must end homelessness.

Burnley Council has launched the Colne Road Neighbourhood Enhancements Project, funded through the UK Government Shared Prosperity Fund (#UKSPF). The project will be delivered between December 2024 to March 2025 and focuses on upgrading several key green spaces along Colne Road, including Thursby Gardens, Thompson Park, Colne Road Bridge/Canal, Bank Hall Park, Allen Street Green Space, Pheasantford Gardens and seating areas adjacent to the Duke of York and Rushworth Street. The project will complement Lancashire County Council #LevellingUpFund proposals for Safer, Greener, Healthier Streets to improve sections of Colne Road, with better pedestrian movement, improving access for communities on both sides of the main road, and addressing issues with speeding motorists. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/ezqiZa5m

Looking forward to hearing Lori McElroy Strathclyde University - Department of Architecture University of Strathclyde Jim Garrity Jennifer Robertson Glasgow Social Enterprise Network - GSEN Cohousing Scotland Norrie MacPhail LDA Design at https://lnkd.in/dKta4nwd. Last early bird places remaining, just £45. Use promo code Linkedin for further 15% discount. These discounted places are limited, book today! Event Overview and Agenda With the current poverty crisis and the long term social, economic and environmental impacts brought about by lockdown and the pandemic, the importance of Community Wealth Building and the Climate Emergency emphasised in the Scottish Government’s 2024 Programme for Government makes clear the importance of resilient communities with the ability to deliver services, employment, health care, wellbeing, economic services, environmental benefit and more at a local level. This capacity to deal with the issues that previous economic, infrastructure and social structures left us vulnerable to has created a wealth of opportunity. This has been reflected with £100m Green Jobs Fund launched in 2022, continued investment in the regeneration of communities and town centres, £200m remaining to be invested in Active Travel infrastructure over the final 2 years of a 5 year programme. The topics covered in this event will include: Local food production, supply chain and the alleviation of food poverty Support for local businesses, buying local and ‘local currency’ Local energy networks, green energy and heat and the alleviation of fuel poverty Economic regeneration, the repurposing of existing space, land and assets to support the new economy and the creation of green jobs Investment and access to funding Event Agenda: 14:00 Opening Remarks from the Chair 14:10 Plenary sessions Understanding community wealth building Planning resilient places – Petra Biberbach, Biberbach Consultancy Retrofitting for the future of our communities – Prof Lori McElroy, Professor of Smart, Resilient Cities, University of Strathclyde Financial inclusion in our communities - Jim Garrity, Operations Manager, Pollock Credit Union What is the role of accessiblr housing in community wealth - Norrie MacPhail, Cohousing Scotland The importance of the social economy – Jennifer Robertson, Director, GSEN Case study – Kirstin Taylor, Director, LDA Design 16:20 Q&A 16:50 Closing Remarks from the Chair 17:00 Close There are a limited number of Early Bird tickets available for this event for just £45 (reduced from a full rate of £60). These will be served on a first -come-first-served basis, so we recommend booking early if you don't want to miss out. We hope you can make it. #communitywealth #architecture #socialeconomy #planning #housing #design

✍ #NewHomesInNewWays Case study highlight: Net-zero, modular housing at Fortis House, Ashford ZED PODS Limited and Ashford Borough Council (ABC) have unlocked an underused public car park to deliver a design-led social housing scheme using MMC (category 1). ❗ The Challenge: ABC faces an affordable housing crisis, with hundreds of homeless households in local hotels, and a huge increase in the cost of providing temporary accommodation in the last few years. 🏗️ The MMC Solution: The award-winning Fortis House project addresses critical social housing needs by unlocking a constrained site and championing digital construction, MMC and sustainability.  With an onsite programme lasting 12 months, the project was completed in half the time of traditional construction. Find out more: https://lnkd.in/d93sEQih This case study is featured at the #NewHomesinNewWays exhibition at the Building Centre. To find out more about the exhibition and the New Homes in New Ways Summit (12th and 13th Feb 25): https://lnkd.in/dA3B_NGg

On a sunny calm evening in Wellington (just like the old saying “Wellington on a good day….”) nearly 50 urban development professionals gathered for our most recent Urban Development Institute of New Zealand UDINZ 2024 Development Pipeline series event.   First up we heard from our series sponsor Watersmart on their innovative products and services.   Then we moved to our four development speakers. At this event our theme was social and affordable housing and all operate in that space. Speakers included:    ➡️Dwell Housing Trust with Ingrid Irene Downey  ➡️Urban Plus Limited with Danny Moriarty  ➡️Toa Developments with Alan Blundell  ➡️The Wellington City Mission with Murray Edridge   The crowd were entertained and informed by the four speakers who had both practical and heart wrenching antidotes to provide.   Some key messages/take away thoughts are:   ➡️The overwhelming key message was that these organisations are in the business of ensuring people live their best lives, and not purely in the housing business. A house is a key part of service and how people they work with live with dignity. ➡️The government rules and landscape are always changing and this makes it difficult for long term planning of housing in the social and affordable housing area – the rules a current development may operate under, will most likely be different when they start planning the next development. ➡️Funding is a hard and constant pressure. The organisations that presented access funding from individuals in the private sector including individual donors providing donations because they want to help solve the housing problems, councils (in the way of being a shareholder or reductions in fees), iwi/Māori organisations, central government and the banking sector. ➡️Anytime the funds from one of these sources is turned off the whole thing has to be rethought through with the overall funding and financing for the housing sector continuing to get harder over time. ➡️The organisations in this sector in the Wellington region are generally small – resourcing to meet the ever increasing demand for housing is hard and assistance in scaling up would be a game changer.   Thank you to UDINZ co-host Liam Hodgetts from Wellington City Council.   #Whereindustryandinsightmeet #connectcollaboratecommunity #resilientsustainablehealthy #WatersmartDevelopmentPipelineSeries24   (NB: The Auckland event is also in planning, so if you're interested in your project going into a pool to be considered for this event or as part of our FY25 site tour program, please do get in touch)   Simon Carter Roger Adlam Andrew Olsen Campbell McGregor Steven Evans Hayley Fitchett Annie Wilson Tracey Haszard Amanda Greenwood James Whetter Anthony Smith Ged Campbell Adrienne L. Miller Sasha Kelly James Solari Kim Kelly Josie FitzGerald Sean Audain Andrew Munn Rebecca Gallacher Stephen Smith Renee de Lisle Georgia C. Naomi Walker Hannah Virk

📢 Saskatoon Tackles Affordable Housing Challenge 🏘️ Saskatoon City Council considers $35 million Housing Accelerator Fund to boost development of affordable units. Program would offer grants and fee rebates to developers, prioritizing non-profits and Indigenous groups. Here's what community members are saying about the initiative: "it’s important that council’s focus be based around community and Indigenous organizations" - Jason Mercredi - @Métis Nation-Saskatchewan Incentives need to cover a good portion of costs to ensure projects are "Sustainable for the housing provider, but affordable for the tenants moving into those units," - Kristen Thoms ED of Quint Development Corporation “The notion of affordability is important but what providers don’t want to be saddled with is 20-year control agreements that prevent them from raising rent at all and not being able to maintain the investment in their properties,” - Cameron Choquette, MPA, PSGov. CEO of Saskatchewan Landlord Association Initiative mirrors successful programs in other Canadian cities. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gEZfPbVN #Saskatoon #affordablehousing #housingcrisis #community #YXE

Frome residents have won their bid to build an innovative community-led town centre development, including affordable homes, workspaces and a lido. Yesterday, the Council agreed to sell the derelict 12-acre brownfield plot to non-profit community group Mayday Saxonvale who will develop the site in collaboration with experts according to a design drawn up by local people and respecting local heritage and ecology. This outcome follows nearly six years of campaigning and a successful judicial review challenge to permission for a rival scheme from a commercial developer, in which Lisa Foster and Hannah Norman of Richard Buxton Solicitors acted for Damon Moore, a founding director of Mayday Saxonvale and where the Judge agreed that the Council had granted permission unlawfully. Our client Damon Moore says of the success: “Community-led development has been bubbling away in the kitchen for decades but the news that Mayday Saxonvale, a not-for profit social enterprise focussed on expressing the local priorities of our town will now be buying this redevelopment site is a moment of UK consequence for planning departments. Why? Because I firmly believe a community-led approach provides the solution to our current housing crisis and can co-exist within the policy targets set by local councils, including their environmental and social concerns rather than undermine them.” Coverage by the Guardian: https://lnkd.in/ga-ja3zB and the BBC: https://lnkd.in/eRF6C3By Our summary of the legal case the community won is here: https://lnkd.in/e7SSc4w7