Radical Housing

Alternative housing models – responsive, collaborative, ecological.

The UK has a long tradition of radical housing: from housing co-operatives and self-managed communities, to the anarchist ideas of Colin Ward opposed to both private ownership and state-delivered and managed housing. Meanwhile, from the vantage point of the 2020s amid a near four decade presumption in favour of private ownership, the mass council housebuilding programmes of the post-war era appear ever more radical.

In the midst of an ever-deepening housing crisis, coupled with the effects of climate change – from heatwaves to increased risk of flooding – it is increasingly accepted that existing models of construction, procurement, management, and delivery are not sufficient and that radical action is required. But what might this radical action look like?

In this event, we explore a range of alternative housing models addressing questions of design, construction, ownership, management, and ways of living. Where and how are these ideas and approaches being developed? What are the barriers to their implementation? Do radical housing policies naturally require radical housing models to implement them? In a time of crisis, when does radical become pragmatic? Our panel explores.

Speakers

Lewis Jones – co-founder of the design collective Assemble and founder of Matter a Hand – a research-led design studio working across architecture, material science and construction. Lewis is also Senior Lecturer in Architecture in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape at Newcastle University.

Helen Jarvis – UK-based scholar-activist with enduring interests in the lived realities of communal living and grassroots interventions that align social with environmental justice. Helen is Professor Emerita Social Geography Engagement in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University

Chaired by Owen Hopkins – Director of the Farrell Centre.

About the series

This event of our Where We Live Now lecture series, tackling the big questions facing housing in Newcastle, the North East and beyond.