Affordable Rural Housing
As part of our research and development, we realised there is a shortfall of essential housing in village settings, critical to enable the village infrastructure to thrive. Generally, individuals and families must move away from their existing community networks when either moving to a larger family home or downsizing. Our design provides a solution to a national problem to develop in a highly constrained and challenging open landscape.
Our Commitment to People, Place and our Planet
We are designing our houses to be eco-friendly and sustainable, while focusing on a harmonious integration within nature. These buildings are affordable housing. Dandelion Seeds recognised the need to build affordable housing which allows young people to get on the property ladder, and for the elderly to stay in neighbourhoods near their families. As well as supporting the younger generation, Intergenerational housing has been shown to improve the health of older adults. The objective was to build a neighbourhood where individuals could live throughout their whole lives and would suit their needs at every stage
Community & Wellbeing
Our eco-friendly houses are set around a shared community space incorporating permaculture values which includes an area for growing vegetables. This provides a great place for local residents to come together and share skills, while growing fresh local produce. All of which supports their overall wellbeing.
Future Proofing
The modular nature of our 2-bed properties provides a future-proofed, flexible design that is able to adapt to your changing needs. Our homes can be transformed simply, whether you need more space to allow for a growing family or you’re choosing to downsize. The individual walls inside the dwelling can be rearranged and the partitions between the dwellings themselves can be rearranged. This allows for increased space when the family grows, or to decrease space when the adult children move out.
Biophilic & Biomimetic Design
Most of the encompassing landscape is jointly owned by the entire community as well as each resident benefiting from their own private garden. Additionally, the proportions of the rooms give the residents a spectacular view of their surroundings. Our design incorporates locally specific materials and colours which help to add to a sense of local character and belonging. Research shows that we feel more creative in places that include natural patterns and materials (CIRD81900 para 6, 13). As the knowledge and capability to integrate the elements above into an architectural neighbourhood design did not exist, this project represents an increase in knowledge and capabilities in the field of architectural engineering.
