PLACE - Modular homes procurement launch

Positive cultural or societal change occurs through action rather than drift. For decades housing in the UK has been allowed to drift. However, this week an encouraging ray of light appeared. Well done to London Councils and the GLA Innovation Fund who are providing £11m of grant funding to kick-start action.

PLACE (Pan-London Accommodation Collaborative Enterprise) is a collaborative programme being brought forward by the London boroughs to deliver new temporary accommodation. PLACE will deliver new family-sized temporary accommodation by utilising the opportunities presented by precision manufactured construction methods on unutilised meanwhile sites – sites that have an identified future use, that cannot be realised at the present time.

A large proportion of the UK’s modular industry packed into Tower Hamlets Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday 25 July to hear Mark Baigent, Robert Turner and colleagues announce and field questions on this innovative and ambitious scheme. If the promise of moveable architecture and meanwhile use is to endure and deliver real impact projects must be visualised, tested and amended.

This exciting project presents an opportunity to re-imagine housing and present something vibrant, more viable, more usable, and more resilient. The speed of change is growing exponentially. We urgently need new feedback loops to drive the move from wasteful to sustainable consumption, and from linear to circular production systems that are regenerative by intention and design and create a system to mend our ways. Well done to all involved and I look forward to seeing how PLACE unfold.

Find out more about PLACE here.