The 'Naked House' Project, UK Aims To Combat Its Housing Crisis Of Affordability

Due to the rise of the average cost of housing in London, U.K. has considered necessitating a creative response to combat its "housing crisis" of affordability. A new housing project designed by the London-based OMMX will bring affordable housing back to the bare essentials, known as the "Naked House."

The Naked House incorporates the idea of co-authoring a house between architects and homeowners. It provides the resident a very affordable entry level shell - a blank canvas to tailor into their ideal home, and a generous proportion to be co-authored by the contractor.

The unit will require the construction of a "base layer" that can be adapted, extended and improved over time - but it is only part of the formula needed to drive down the build cost of homes. Each unit of Naked House will have the potential to achieve 87 square meters, equivalent to a three-bedroom, four people two-storey home, in its fully-adapted state, according to the current London Housing Design Guide.

Each house in the Naked House project will anticipate and encourage future adaptation to primarily maintain long-term relevance. 50 square meters of open plan dwelling will be given to each resident, a floor area that could later be expanded through either a rear extension or by infilling the double height space within the envelope of the existing shell.

The Naked House project will consist of 22 homes which will be built in the north of the British capital, according to Arch Daily. Robust, cheap, DIY and 'Design & Build' friendly materials will be used for each unit to provide enough flexibility in making sure the building can be easily adapted for future use over its design life of up to a century.

The radical idea defies the proposal builds upon a long tradition of home-making in Britain. It's exciting, however, that architects and developers are now embracing its reality to provide what we hope will be a broad and inclusive spectrum of solutions to U.K. housing crisis.