Three designs addressing housing shortages revealed as Davidson Prize finalists

This year's Davidson Prize shortlist includes three conceptual projects that propose adapting existing buildings with sustainable materials to tackle climate change and housing shortage.

The annual prize, which explores the concept of home, was launched in 2021 in memory of architectural visualiser Alan Davidson.

Entrants this year were asked to respond to the theme Rethinking Home – Adapt and Reuse, reimagining existing structures as homes with the use of bio-based or sustainable materials.

Three teams were shortlisted to progress their designs for a final presentation.

One of the teams was comprised of studios Studio Saar, Landstory, Stories, BAS and Megaphone Creative, whose project titled Apartment Store aimed to reuse vacant retail spaces as homes to reinvent UK towns.

Taking an abandoned department store in Taunton as an example, it aimed to bring about a sense of civic pride and limit development sprawl by creating homes with repurposed demolition materials and locally grown biomaterials.

Studios OEB Architects, Yaa Projects, Nick Bano, Dominic Humphrey and Stuti Bansal sought to revitalise towns built in the 1950s and 60s in their project, Harlow Re-New Town.

The team focused on local circular economies in Harlow New Town, self-build methods and biomaterials to design a way for similar post-war estates to transform their brownfield sites into housing.

Also on the shortlist was Robin Hood Co-Living Community by studios Alma-nac, Constant SD, Eric Guibert and Mark Blackwell, which explored how redundant airports could be transformed into community hubs in their project.

Using a former airport in Sheffield as its example, the team proposed reusing the structure and decommissioned planes for housing, which could expand into self-built communities on the airport grounds with re-wilded runways.

This year's jury panel includes Be First associate director Amandeep Singh Kalra, Atelier Ten director Duncan Campbell, Elle Decoration UK design editor Alice Finney, Total Synergy commercial lead Miles Mitchell, and Mikhail Riches co-founder Annalie Riches.

Also joining the panel is Alexander Turner, co-founder of Studio Mutt, which was part of last year's winning team.

"While the three finalists are diverse in their overall approaches and team configurations they are centred around the idea of community, something which I believe is vital to the home of tomorrow," said Turner.

"The chosen teams proposed tangible solutions to dealing with the housing crisis against the backdrop of the climate emergency," added Finney.

"I was particularly inspired by how all three teams incorporated the innovative use of bio-materials – something which the design industry needs to start doing more in the drive to a truly sustainable future," Finney said.

Davidson died in 2018, aged 58, from motor neurone disease (MND). Before he passed away, he set up the Alan Davidson Foundation charity to help support people affected by MND and other associated neurological conditions.

Last year's Davidson Prize was awarded to Studio Mutt and researcher Neighbourhood for the Helping Hands homeless accommodation concept in Liverpool.

In 2022, Charles Holland Architects won the prize with artist Verity-Jane Keefe and Sound Advice founder Joseph Zeal-Henry for affordable co-housing rentals in the countryside.

The images are courtesy of The Davidson Prize. 

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