Architects for Social Housing (ASH) exhibited its proposals for the West Kensington and Gibbs Green estates, which are threatened with full demolition and redevelopment by Hammersmith and Fulham Council in collaboration with Capco property developers. ASH’s proposals are part of the feasibility study for The People’s Plan, which in turn is part of the residents’ application for a Right to Transfer from the local authority to a community-owned, resident-controlled housing association. This exhibition formed the basis for a workshop on their methods.Following extensive consultation with residents, ASH is proposing a significant number of additional homes on the estates, from 1-3 bedroom flats and houses, including disabled accommodation. The sale of a percentage of these on the private market will generate the funds to refurbish the 760 existing homes, improve the existing landscape, and provide many new communal facilities.
ASH believes their architectural proposal for The People’s Plan is a model of home and community building that can be exported across London and the UK, and a genuinely sustainable and financially viable response to the housing crisis.
Architects for Social Housing (ASH) was set up in March 2015 in order to
respond architecturally to London’s housing ‘crisis’. We are a working collective of architects, planners, housing campaigners and activists operating with developing ideas under set principles. First among these is the conviction that infill, build-over and refurbishment are more sustainable solutions to London’s housing needs than the demolition and redevelopment of the city’s council estates. To this end, we propose architectural alternatives to demolition that both increase housing capacity on estates as well as generating funds for the renovation of the existing homes, while leaving the communities they house intact.
