- Why do we need another type of housing procurement method for the UK?
- What is the difference between ESP and self build?
- Will this method of development prove popular?
- What are pattern books?
- What does the enabling developer have to do?
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Why do we need another type of housing procurement method for the UK?
Before the credit crunch, the UK was suffering a housing crisis. Poor quality design, poor environmental performance, miserable space standards, and not enough new housing completions. Demand for new homes continued to outstrip supply of homes, and it was unclear how the private sector alone would be able to meet the government's annual housing targets. We developed the ESP model to offer another way to tackle volume housing.
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What is the difference between ESP and self build?
Not everyone has the time energy or skill to self build and opportunities to build your own home in an urban setting are few and far between. ESP on the other hand is a method to build a whole community of new homes by creating an enabled development framework co-ordinating self build opportunities on serviced plots with perscriptive planning permission within a new development. Each development opportunity requires an appropriate level of engagement to suit the local housing market and need. ESP is a very different prospect to a grand designs approach to self build.
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Will this method of development prove popular?
We think so. According to research 70% of British homeowners think about building their own homes one day. If so many people feel comfortable adapting and extending their own homes, and many think about building their own new house, why has this ambition been made so difficult for us in the UK? We think ESP can offer a hybrid between self build and volume housing that will offer many households and househunters an attractive route to a new home in the place they wish to live.
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What are pattern books?
Pattern Books refer to the means of capturing and disseminating architectural design information in a non site specific way. In proposing the use of pattern books for new UK housing, we are not promoting a one size/one style fits all approach (as many speculative developers have been guilty of in the past few years). Far from it, we are promoting a sensible means to get good design out into the housing industry at volume scale. If we think about the design and delivery crisis in the UK, how else can we achieve numbers and quality if we don't think smart about the means of embedding good design into volume housing?
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What does the enabling developer have to do?
The enabling developer co-ordinates the development opportunites for individuals by splitting up land into serviced plots, developing pattern books an design codes to control develop on those plots, and building the infrastructure roads and public realm.
