Charlie Fisher from Transition by Design introducing the OPAL Project

How can a collaborative movement be built around the need for quality housing which is truly affordable, sustainable and community-led?

That's the question which prompted the Shaping Spaces Together: Building the Movement for Fairer Housing event on 17th November 2016 in London, organised by Bioregional and New Economics Foundation. Koru marketing and communications officer Tegan Tallullah was pleased to attend.

The panel event was chaired by Stephen Hill of the UK Cohousing Network and featured short presentations by Jenny Line from Building & Social Housing Federation, Alice Martin from New Economics Foundation, Kareem Dayes from Rural Urban Synthesis Society and Sue Riddlestone, CEO of Bioregional. Following the presentations and discussion with the delegates, Charlie Fisher from Transition by Design introduced an exciting new collaborative project between Transition by Design and Bioregional. They are developing the One Planet Affordable Living (OPAL) Model - which will integrate the One Planet Living framework for sustainable living with the principles for truly affordable (tied to local incomes) co-operative and community-led housing. They are currently conducting action research for their framework, which is meant to serve as a blueprint for developments similar to BedZED and One Brighton to really scale from small pilots to a major part of the UK housing stock.

It was a really inspirational event and Tegan is keen to stay in touch with the sustainable housing leaders she met and find out how Koru Architects can be involved.

Were you at the event? Tweet to @KoruArchitects and use #FairerHousing to share your view!