On Saturday 20th June, with colleagues from London Festival of Architecture, Museum of Architecture and volunteers from the GHA membership we hosted a fantastic Lego Challenge workshop at the London Centre.
The design brief we set challenged kids, and their parents, to think about good homes and create a neighbourhood. The young people responded with bags of energy and ideas for creating places and homes that work for themselves, their families and their wider communities. This was an engaging process for all involved but also very helpful for the GHA team as we work towards launching our Good Homes Charter Mark.
Coming together in teams, the family groups together designed and cities and neighbourhoods for home, work, learning and play. The teams created:
- Playbourhood – a “happy village” including a lake, lots of trees, a care home, library, ampitheatre and sky high cinema!
- City on the Sea – a floating evolving city with courtyard houses, and landscape-led ecoscape with trees and planting
- Mega Lego City – a city designed to support togetherness, providing lots of sport provision, a school, National Park, family homes, shops, and solar/electric power
The young people considered accessibility, sustainability and joy in the places they co-created. It was a hard call to judge, but GHA Chair, Tom Dollard, selected the Mega Lego City for prizes and praised the mixed-use design and walkable neighbourhoods.
Alongside the Lego Challenge, GHA staff spoke with parents and carers at the event – to gauge what “good homes” look and feel like. This is to support and complement the work we are doing in professional membership circles where we speak about:
- Homes that minimise whole life carbon through their product selection, construction processes, and in-use operation
- Healthy, adaptive homes with excellent air quality, comfort (overheating/shading control) and sufficient space
- Homes and places that are resilient to a rapidly changing climate and extreme weather events, including minimising overheating, flood risk & water scarcity
- Homes that minimise operational energy and water demand, and perform in use as intended
The attendees at the Lego Challenge shared lots of thoughts on how they want to live and how they want their homes to function. Some points raised included:
- Homes that are cheap to run and maintain
- Good space in terms of room size and storage
- Gardens and/or spaces with green areas and trees around homes
- Comfortable and warm homes during the cold months
- Shaded and cool housing too
- Long lasting design/materials – properties built to last
- Bright and fresh environments – with both good daylight and good ventilation
- Energy efficient homes, using renewable energy
- Include heat pumps, insulation, solar panels, rainwater collection
- Accessible and connected places with transport links
- Safe spaces to play and well-lit neighbourhoods
- Community connections and public seating / art
It was refreshing to have such honest conversations about good homes and neighbourhoods with all ages. It was a fantastic event and one we hope to repeat!
Thanks to our members Studio Partington, PRP, HTA, and the Concrete Centre for sending architects/representatives to support the day. Also to students from Central St Martins who joined to support.
MHCLG also attended the event and will be sharing vox pops and more insights from the participating young people – keep a look out on our channels!