This was a shortlisted competition entry for the NLA New Ideas for Housing London Insight Study. Designed as a polemical answer to the housing crisis, 100 land hungry retail carparks in London were identified and recyclable modular housing aligned to carpark grids was proposed to be temporarily installed while planning was sought for new neighbourhoods on these sites.
The housing was designed volumetrically out of Structurally Insulated Plywood Panels in arrangements which allowed for a gated carpark to function on the ground floor level and rooftop amenity spaces to be provided at the upper levels. It was proposed that the housing would be let out on ten year leases with a loyalty card system offering preferential rents for those who shopped locally. At the end of the ten years, once the planning consultation and process had been completed, the housing could be dismantled and moved to the next site.
In doing so the balance could be moved away from land hungry retail to much needed housing and community uses, while maintaining temporary local retail demand.
