Design Council launches housing guide for Home of 2030 competition

The results of a wide-reaching public engagement exercise designed to understand and provide new insight into what people need from their homes has been launched today (Monday, 13th July 2020) by Design Council.

Part of the government-backed Home of 2030 competition being run by BRE, Design Council, RIBA Competitions and the Ministry of Building Innovation + Education (MOBIE), A Public Vision for the Home of 2030 has been developed by Design Council to inform the second stage of the Home of 2030 competition as well as providing guidance for the housing sector as a whole. 

Housing Minister Rt Hon Christopher Pincher MP said:

Today’s report follows one of the largest-ever exercises to place people at the heart of new homes – revealing precisely what we need from the homes of the future.

I’m keen to see the Home of 2030 entries later this year and how they take these principles on board to deliver new low-carbon homes and independent living for older generations. Green, clean homes will help our economy to bounce back more sustainably than ever before.

Sarah Weir OBE, Chief Executive of Design Council, said: “We need to shift the conversation about housing to one about the home, and to emphasise the voices of those who matter the most when it comes to the design of our future homes: the people who will live in them.  

“Even before Covid-19 brought about new ways of living and working, this research started to highlight that we still need to get the fundamentals right. We all need more, different things from our homes as we move through our lives, and this needs to be recognised, accommodated and celebrated.  

As well as informing the next stage of the Home of 2030 competition, this report should be a tool for everyone involved in housing delivery. Good homes impact everything – from our health and wellbeing to the success of those bringing them forward and national efforts to tackle climate change. At a time when housing delivery is particularly complex it makes individuals’ priorities clear.