I just did an audio interview with Tony Gosling (The Land is Ours) about the UK Plotlands. He asked me if there was anything we can learn from Plotlands that started in the 1920s and 1930s, that could help solve the current housing crisis. So here goes with a summary.
Plotlands and the UK Housing Crisis by Stefan Szczelkun
1. Land must be made available for self-build development in a way that does not make the plots prohibitively expensive. Ideally maintaining agricultural value per plot.
2. This might mean some kind of organisation structure that obtains and holds the land for this use. Users could get secure land tenure when they had proved their commitment and availability to build. Resale could only recoup investment made in building materials etc. Additional value might go back into providing more land.
3. The planners would have to be ready to accept a rough and ready aesthetic to start with. With the knowledge from plotlands that the houses will gradually achieve a more coherent architectural aesthetic as they develop over a decade or two. The appreciation of improvisation might require a light hand from Building regulation and planning? Keeping in mind their higher purpose of communal well-being
4. They could accept that a motorhome could provide basic amenities at first as the building goes through its initial stages. ie groundwork’s and initial shelter. Cost of a second hand motorhome or converting a van could be as low as £5000. When I lived in a van it was already insulated.
5. The cost of initial ground works (collectivised for 10 or more dwellings) and basic enclosure would constitute a basic level of investment. It would be good if this could be in the region of £20 – 30,000. At this point permanent occupation as a first home would be expected in exchange for security of tenure and a rent to pay back land costs.
6. The initial shelter might be as simple as a single living space with kitchen and bathroom as per motorhome technology. The structure of this space might be a factory made and insulated timber structure. Or depending on the site and building skills available the walls might be rammed earth, straw bale or other material as available locally. Recycling of window and door units?
Designed so additional rooms can be added to external walls or through internal panels.
7. Low cost, loose fit, low energy, long life. Alex Gordon 1972 also Alison Ravetz…
8. This could be applied to multi-storey reused structure – with a more challenging aesthetics? (although they could be developed behind an agreed skin/ cladding. Multi-storey flats would be built by a co-operative of builders. That included training in require skills.
Groups plan the layout and surfaces of their own flats.
9. The original Plotlands used railway carriages, showman’s wagons as the starter shelter. There could be a national reuse of all lorries and larger vans coming to the end of their mechanical life. These might only need insulation and ventilation to be useful.
10. More abstractly: a. The Working class produces all value including housing. b. The UK Plotlands shows us what was possible when working class people were allowed half a chance in the 1920s and 1930s. Surviving examples needs to be recognised and protected as our working class cultural heritage.