£60,000 home of the future

By THIS IS MONEY
Updated: 03:39 EST, 11 May 2006

THE first of John Prescott's long-awaited £60,000 homes has now been completed.

Situated in the heart of the capital, just off Tottenham Court Road, and adjacent to The Building Centre in Store Street, the stylish, full-size prototype pictured below is complete with distinctive glass rooftop lantern, single-pitch roof, generous windows and cedarwood and tile cladding.

It marks the opening of an exhibition, the Design for Manufacture, which features the winners of the competition to build a home for £60,000.

From 15 to 20 May, The Building Centre hosts a show of low-cost, high-design housing by leading architectural practices such as Make, Richard Rogers Partnership and Sheppard Robson.

The architects have teamed up with housebuilders including George Wimpey, Redrow, Barratt and William Verry to form building consortiums that are creating this new generation of innovative, factory-made homes.

The competition was about designing a high-specification, two-bedroom home, measuring a generous 823sq ft, using factory-made components, all for a build budget of £60,000. The retail price will be higher when items such as land costs have been factored in.

Versions of the full-scale prototype home, built by Kingspan using an insulated timber-panel system, are destined for sites in Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, (68 homes) and near Maidstone, Kent, (148 homes).

'The competition was ambitious in its brief, but has provided a much-needed focus for the possibilities offered by modern methods of construction and high-quality contemporary design,' says Alan Shingler, of Sheppard Robson. The latter forms part of the winning consortium, called SIXTYK, along with housebuilder Crest Nicholson and engineering company Arup.

Visitors to the centre's New London Architecture gallery will have the chance to give their verdicts. Along with models, computer-generated images, digital fly-throughs and drawings, there will be a noticeboard for comments, many of which will be included in a book about the competition at a later date.

'From the start, our Aim was to move the market forward, particularly in terms of modern methods of construction and the quality of new homes,' says Trevor Beattie, of regeneration agency English Partnerships, which organised the year-long contest on behalf of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

'At first, people said it was impossible to build a home for £60,000, but expectations have been exceeded and we have demonstrated just how impressive the results can be, setting new standards of design, construction and energy efficiency,' says Beattie. 'Along with seeing these winning homes being built, we are looking forward to receiving feedback on their running costs and how people enjoy living in them.'

As a result, some 1,100 homes are expected to be built on brownfield land at 10 sites which include Milton Keynes, Basingstoke, Northampton, Hastings, and Dartford in Kent.

• Design For Manufacture is at the New London Architecture gallery, The Building Centre, 26 Store Street, WC1 (020 7692 6208). The exhibition runs until 20 May. Admission is free.