TWO PIECES OF TOAST

TWO PIECES OF TOAST: Miles Dean for ADS1 Royal Collage of Art 2020/2021 MA Architecture

An investigation into the mass housebuilding industry in the uk and a reaction to its methods of operation.

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

INTRO

Instead of working against the power structures that define mass housing in the UK, can we rewire them to redistribute control?

1

INTRO

_Methodology _Abstract _Contents TWO PIECES OF TOAST

INTRO

/00

3

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

INTRO

‘New Build’

Young british photographer Tom Westbury’s series ‘New Build’ [https://www.tomwestbury.com/new-build] captures the sticky suburbia playing out across the UK. There is a palpable claustrophobia in these landscapes. They show an environment formed of expansive brick planes, boundaries, enclaves and hegemonic surface and detail. The painfully small windows. The outbuildings peeping over walls, the parked cars. These are the few resolute signs of private effect and occupation.

To me, these photographs capture what is so compelling about this context. The complete control exerted by the urban strategy laid out by speculative housebuilders contains identity and expression, even existence. Perhaps parking a heavily financed Audi A3 out the front of your new build semi really is the only/easiest way to make a house a home?

5

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

INTRO

Methodology This dossier lays out the project chronologically and combines the Research Book with the Development and Design Portfolios.

Starting with an objective investigation into the UK’s mass housebuilders (MHBs), I focused on Persimmon Homes to build a detailed picture of how this industry operates.

The research was conducted from a broad range of sources, from academic papers to Youtube new house tours by everyday people and bloggers. I found valuable information on the Burnley FC fans forum and in stranger places still.

Understanding how these companies are reported on in the news was illuminating - much less was said about the architecture than the profits these companies make.

Persimmon’s own marketing collateral, as well as their in-depth annual reports which celebrate their corporate endeavours, gave me an insight into how the industry sees itself.

I looked back at where the industry has come from, how speculative housebuilding has developed and how our perceptions of the home have changed over time. Learning from almost a century of the Daily Mail’s Ideal Home Exhibition, I tried to paint a picture of how we interact with these homes today whilst being cautious not to dismiss, stereotype or generalise the landscape and its inhabitants.

Building on a personal interest in the self build / usercontrolled housing ideas of John F.C. Turner, I tried to build a case for a new form of engagement in the least welcoming of places - the developer built house.

Follwing the initial research into the housebuilding industry, I have constructed a case that looks to the builders and the occupants of these homes to share responsibility in the realisation of housing.

7

ABSTRACT

Above: Studio theme collage. A Provocation. Could the new housing delivered in the UK ever accommodate individuality, expression and variance?

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

INTRO

Abstract

Starting off as an investigation into mass house builders in the UK, I have developed this work into a provocation that interrogates the structures, limitations and opportunities in our suburban landscapes. By looking at the existing mechanisms of housing provision in the UK, I am searching for ways to reform rather than revolt against a system that is so obviously problematic, but where the very structures that render it unsuitable are also those that mean it’s not likely to change. In some ways, this project is a collection of small acts that hope to redistribute housing control away from the large speculative builders.

I’ve seen these developments spring up since I was young all around where I live in the Midlands. The more I learnt about architecture, the less I understood about these developments. They changed from just being streets and homes to something potentially quite sinister. Who built them? Why? How? If this was the answer, what was the question?

Over 250,000 of these homes are built each year (by the largest 8 housebuilders). These peripheral landscapes sit in a grey, unattractive middle ground between urban centers and open countryside. This is where we live. How long can we remain in quiet submission or subconscious ignorance of the challenges and hence the opportunities rife in this vast midfield of architecture? Reacting to an investigation into the structure, practices and products of Persimmon Homes, this body of work can be read as an attempt to deconstruct rather than eliminate the control of housebuilders.

The homes they build can be read as a form of economic conservatism. They are the least offensive, least expensive and subsequently the most attractive to the largest section of potential buyers. This prevents an architectural redressing of this landscape because these homes have no problem selling and customer objections are seldom based on stylistic grounds.

An oblique reading of this landscape doesn’t stir anything other than sense of underwhelming respect - I get why they are the way they are. Going a little deeper into the process of procuring, building and purchasing these homes has yielded something worth unpicking, however.

There exists a powerful structure of control that these housebuilders have arranged for themselves which aims to keep things the way they are. Through aggressive contracts, restrictive covenants and blanket planning policies, these developments are intentionally locked in a controlled state that benefits the housebuilders.

Physically, occupants are also obstructed from creating and acting for themselves. Any efforts to change these homes in line with individual needs and aspirations that extend beyond the decorative, are actively suppressed. As a reaction to this exposed culture of predetermination and heteronomy, how can we deconstruct the control of the housebuilders?

By reflecting on the physical reality of making a house a home, I’ve explored this ambition by trying to redistribute responsibility in the process of housebuilding and home making.

In the UK we have a small group of dominant companies that deliver the lion’s share of our homes. They bank land, release it slowly and build quickly and cheaply. They face little threat from others resulting in a unique lack of distinction and quality. The conditions that allowed these companies to grow show little signs of changing. What good would it do to envision a world where housing was delivered without them?

9

INTRO _Methodology _Abstract _Contents MASS HOUSEBUILDING _ A History of Speculative Building _Persimmon Homes Plc. _Their Operation _Their Homes _Their Customers HOUSE / HOME _The Ideal Home Exhibition _New Platforms for Agency _Self Build / Self Directed MECHANISMS OF CONTROL _Corporate _Legislative _Physical PLATFORMS FOR EMANCIPATION DEVELOPMENT _Building a Structure _Building a Product _Building a Process PERSIMMON > PERMISSION _The Model _The Object _The Outcome IN PRACTICE BIBLIOGRAPHY TWO PIECES OF TOAST

INTRO

11

MASS MASS HOUSEBUILDING _A History of Speculative Building _Persimmon Homes Plc. _Their Operation _Their Homes _Their Users

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

MASS HOUSE BUILDING

HOUSE BUILDING /01

13

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

MASS HOUSE BUILDING

Who builds these homes?

Where are these they?

What are they?

How do they build them?

Who are they for?

IF THIS IS THE ANSWER, WHAT WAS THE QUESTION?

15

A short history of speculative housebuilding in the UK.

The UK has a rich history of mass housing provision, from the enduring success of the Georgian period to the radical and ultimately ill-fated post-war social housing boom.

These huge urban events tell a story of housing in Britain, consisting of ambitious and massive developments that sought to meet demand whilst reflecting the attitudes of their time. So what can be said of the architectural quality of mass housing developments being built today?

The suburban landscape of Britain is an ever-shifting frontier where the expanding pressures of urban expansion come up against the existing rural landscape. Every square metre of land has its own history and contexts that influence its present and its future but, increasing the scale of our consideration, we can trace a pattern of developmental in peri-urban landscapes that for the last 400 years has created the most maligned architectural typology, the suburb.

This is a territory that is defined not by the buildings being built but by shifting titles, covenants, leasehold and freeholds and systems of latent and explicit permission that in effect create a house-shaped hole for a predictable form of house to be pushed through. This is not a novel condition. Since the earliest significant growths of our cities and towns, there has always been an edge; a physical and ideological place between the past and the future. How has our dependency on individuals and/or corporations ability and desire to build out our streets shaped our landscape?

“Yet what seems in some ways more remarkable than our ignorance on […] bigger questions is the smallness of our knowledge on about a number of little things, especially those involved in the basic developmental process of converting open country into closed-up streets and the business operations that carries them though” [Victorian Studies Vol. 11, Supplement: Symposium on the Victorian City (2) (Summer, 1968) The legacy of speculative housebuilding does more than linger to this day - it thrives. Despite a radical and relatively short-lived blip on Britain’s housing timeline following the destruction of WW2 where local authorities delivered the lions share of homes being built in the UK, we have relied on private enterprise to provide us with a place to live. Today, the majority of new housing built in the UK is delivered by a small number of companies who face little pressure to address to the apparently insurmountable housing crisis Britain faces.

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

MASS HOUSE BUILDING

The last 400 years of speculative housebuilding offers a reference of aspirations of the past. What do today’s developments say about us?

Despite a growing consciousness of the fragility of rural ecosystems, the environmental costs of urban growth and the finite nature of green spaces, this type of speculative development relentlessly marches on into the foreseeable future. A powerful oligopoly of mass housebuilders have cemented themselves as leaders in the new build housing market where powerful land purchasing and development models, backed by government support schemes such as Help to Buy, allow them to populate the British landscape with commodity housing. A toxic mix of neoliberal planning policies, Thatcherite attitudes to competition and worryingly underfunded local authorities and communities has created space for these companies to create the suburban landscape in their own image.

Whilst the suburban fabric being built today looks very different to those of previous centuries, speculative housebuilders have held a stranglehold on the built environment since the Great Fire of London onwards and are showing no signs of relinquishing their control.

By looking beyond architectural qualities, we can read along, entrenched history of suburban housing delivery for profit in the UK. By stepping back into the landscapes that certain typologies emerged in, we find a common thread that their physical form, social value and contemporary adjacencies belie. That of the speculatively built suburb.

From the Georgian squares of 18th Century London, through the Victorian streets and post-war expansions, to today’s peri-urban housing developments, the domestic landscape in Britain’s towns and cities has been formed over and over again by speculative venture that in recent years has become dangerously consolidated in the hands of a few companies.

17

Who are these all powerful companies?

How do they fit in to the business of building homes?

Barratt Homes, Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey, Bellway, Bovis, Redrow, McCarthey & Stone and Countryside. These 8 companies have built over 250,000 homes in 2019 [precovid year used as reference]. That’s over half of all new housing completed in the UK at the time. This paints a picture of a model of housing delivery that is dominated, and potentially controlled, by private enterprise. At this point in the UK’s rich history of housing provision, we are the furthest away from a mixed housing supply. All our eggs are being increasingly placed in one large basket.

These companies are significant donors to political parties, notably the UK Conservative Party. Since the deregulation of the Thatcher era, they have been allowed, indeed encouraged, to strengthen their position at the expense of others. Multiple mergers, acquisitions and consolidations have lead to the creation of housing behemoths.

In the last 50 years the top 10 house builders by volume increased their market share from 8% to over 50%. In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, the largest 25 housebuilders completed around 50% of all new homes on the market.

Fast forward 25 years or so and the control that major players in the industry have has strengthened. There are consequences to such a consolidated market and this is evident in by looking at the type of homes they bring to market.

As it was with the Georgian rate homes, today’s volume housebuilders operate a core house type model. By designing and refining a condensed range of homes that can be dressed to sympathise with local tastes, today’s speculative builders have essentially created a standardised toolkit for creating Britain’s domestic landscape.

The key distinction between the mechanisms that propelled speculative builders in the past and today is the relentless search for profit. Persimmon’s inclusion on the stock market was inevitable as speculative building has always been an attractive investment for those with land or capital to offer up.

Public listings complete the financialisation of the domestic environment in the UK.

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

MASS HOUSE BUILDING

01. > BARRATT 17,579 (completions) £288,900 (avg. price) £901m (pre-tax profit) 02. > PERSIMMON 16,499 (completions) £215,563 (avg. price) £1048m (pre-tax profit)

03. > TAYLOR WIMPEY 14,993 (completions) £263,900 (avg. price) £836m (pre-tax profit)

04. > BELLWAY 10,307 (completions) £263,900 (avg. price) £662m (pre-tax profit) 05. > REDROW 5,718 (completions) £332,300 (avg. price) £406m (pre-tax profit) 06. > COUNTRYSIDE 4,295 (completions) £252,800 (avg. price) £186m (pre-tax profit) 19

£6.66bn

Revenue (2019)

6245

Subcontracts

£547m

Supplier Spend

71,942

Plots In Land Bank

£66,000

Profit per house

£1416m

Subcontractor spend

£1.04bn

Profit (2019)

24,000

Supported construction jobs

£79m

First occupant spend

365

Persimmon Homes: In 1973 David Davidson founded Persimmon Homes in York. At the time, the company was building a very modest number of post-war homes in the north of England.

Following the establishment of East Anglican, South West and Midlands divisions in the early ’80s as well as the purchase of another house-builder, Sketchmead in 1994, Persimmon PLC was floated on the stock exchange in 1985 when it was building just 1,000 homes a year.

Over the next decade Persimmon consumed a number of other housebuilders, notably Ideal Homes in 1995 with its annual roster of 5,000 homes and the Scottish division of John Laing PLC and Tilbury Douglas Homes. It emerged into the 21st Century as one of a few increasingly dominant housebuilders operating throughout the UK. It purchased Beazer Homes in 2001 and West homes in 2006 at a cost of over £600 million each. Today Persimmon Homes has acquired and consolidated over 9 independent housebuilders; Ryedale Homes, Comben Homes, Sketchmead Homes, Ideal Homes, John Laing (Scotland), Tilbury Douglas Homes, Beazer Homes, Merewood Homes and Westbury Homes.

Active sites (2019)

5,300

Employees

26,000

Supported supply chain jobs

£5,260

First occupant spend per home

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

MASS HOUSE BUILDING

2020

2010

2000

1990

1980

1970

1960

DAVID DAVIDSON LEAVES GEORGE WIMPEY HOMES

180,000 160,000

DAVIDSON FOUNDS RYEDALE HOMES

140,000 120,000 100,000 80,000 60,000

George Wimpey completed 12,500 homes in 1972, 3x more than its nearest competitor Ideal Homes.

40,000 20,000 0

DAVIDSON RYEDALE HOMES TO COMBEN HOMES FOR £600,000

COMPLETIONS BY SOURCE

1970 PERSIMMON HOMES FOUNDED BY DAVIDSON IN YORK

MID 70’s RECESSIONS

250K 200K

EXPANDS WITH FORMATION OF EAST ANGLICAN DEVISION

150K 100K 50K 0

ESTABLISHES SOUTH WEST DIVISION

AVG. HOUSE PRICE / AVG. YEARLY SALARY

EARLY 80’s RECESSION

ESTABLISHES MIDLANDS DEVISION

1980

5000 4000 2000

1,000 HOMES

1000 0

PERSIMMON PLC. MARKET PRICE

COMPANY

PERSIMMON PURCHASES SKETCHMEAD

Sketchmeads director tony fawcett becomes deputy md at persimmon

FLOATED ON LSE IN 1985

2,000 HOMES

BRANDS

£6.66bn

1990 P

Revenue (2019)

£1.04bn

W

W

Profit (2019)

P

EARLY 90’s RECESSION

JOHN WHITE BECOMES CHIEF EXECUTIVE AND DAVID DAVIDSON MVOES TO CHAIRMAN

C

C

£66,000

IDEAL COMES WITH A 5000 HOME / YEAR ROSTER

PERSIMMON PURCHASES SCOTTISH HOUSING BUSINESS OF JOHN LAING PLC. AND TILBURY DOUGLAS HOMES

Profit / House

PERSIMMON CHARLES CHURCH WESTBURY

EMPLOYMENT

5,300

11,327 1,136 3,392

PERSIMMON CHARLES CHURCH WESTBURY

76% 12% 12%

£230,036

Employees

PERSIMMON

6245

£361,132

Subcontractors

CHARLES CHURCH

24,000

£119,166

Supported Construction Jobs

10,000 HOMES

PURCHASES BEAZER HOMES FOR £612 MILLION [ACQUIRES CHARLES CHURCH BRAND]

MURCHASES MEREWOOD HOMES

PURCHASES WESTBURY HOMES FOR £643 MILLION

WESTBURY (-49%)

£1416m

PERSIMMON PURCHASES IDEAL HOMES FOR £176M AND BOOSTS ITS OPPERATIONS IN THE SOUTH EAST

[ACQUIRES WESTBURY BRAND]

Ideal homes was once the largest housebuilder in the uk (pre war) and was owned by trafalgar house.

Helped by the acquisition of comben homes and broseley estates, ideal homes had become the 5th largest housebuilder

Taylor woodrow a key major housebuilder in the uk, would later merge with its rival george wimpey in 2007 to become the uk’s largest housevuilder by volume

In the early 2000’s westbury invested heavily in prefabricated initiatives, specifically a factory capible of building 5,000 prefab homes a year.

2008 GFC

LAND

Subcontractor Spend

71,942

26,000

2000

This deal came about after a merger between beazer homes and bryant failed and taylor woodrow stepped in to buy bryant.

1986 - Consumed whelmar midlands division 1995 - Consumed clarke homes 1998 - Consumed manchester based maunders 2002 - Consumed southern prowting

9,348 HOMES

2010

Plots in land bank

Supported Supply Chain Jobs

365

£547m

Localism Act 2012 The conservative governments initiative to divulge power and agency to local authorities through the Localism Act coincided Help to Buy scheme with government reducing is launched by George funding of councils. This Osbourne: “to help firsttime buyers get a property leads to councils seeking to make up deficits in with just a 5% deposit. ther budgets by bedding You can borrow 20% of the purchase price (40% in with mass-housebuilders through Section 106 London), interest free for agreements. . five years.”

PURCHASES HILLREAD HOMES

Active Sites (2019)

Supplier Spend

14,572 HOMES

CUSTOMER

£79m

First Occupancy Spend

£5260

16,499 HOMES

First Occupancy Spend / Home

18,000

800K

13,500

600K

9,000

400K

4,500

200K

2020

OPERATING ACROSS 400 SITES THROUGHOUT THE UK NATIONAL TARGET: 300,000 COMPLETIONS: 161,022

This marks an 80% increase over the last decade but only a 1% increase since 2019.

MCARTHY STONE

CREST NICHOLSON

BERKELEY

BOVIS

GALLIFORD TRY

COUNTRYSIDE

REDROW

BELLWAY

TAYLOR WIMPEY

PERSIMMON

0 BARRATT

0

BARRAT 17,579 HOMES

21

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

MASS HOUSE BUILDING

23

How do “we” the people percieve them?

“Because obviously… what makes me laugh is we’ve been on the telly; how sh*t Persimmons are across the country. We’ve been on the telly; how sh*t Charles Church are. All over the f***ing place, Dispatches, BBC One, you name it they’ve been on it, over the last 8, 9, 10 months how crap they are. You go on the internet, and you’ve got all these f***ing websites: don’t buy a Persimmon home, don’t buy a Charles Church home they’re sh*t, blah blah blah blah blah right? Yet you will still get people paying two hundred, in excess of half a million pounds in some cases, for a house and they won’t even go and look at it, until the day they’re due to complete, until they’ve paid for the f***ing thing.”

The above transcript is from a leaked recording taken at one of Persimmons sites in 2017 detailing the opinions of one of their contract managers. He goes on to say: “We are, not Waitrose. we are not even Tesco. We are the Lidls and Aldis of the construction industry. As we all know the Lidls and Aldis of the f***ing supermarket world are getting bigger and bigger and bigger. That’s what the public want.”

Persimmon’s rap sheet with the press is perhaps the longest out of all the major housebuilders, but none of them are free from criticism. Following a streak of bad press in 2018, Persimmon’s board commissioned an independent audit

by Stephanie Barwise (QC) to look into their practice as a housebuilder.

The main reports of Persimmon’s failings centre on the following; shallow freehold and leasehold contracts, poor build quality, long snagging lists that take months to be resolved, unfinished sites, and on and on... Looking across the range of media sources that report on Persimmon Homes is indicative of the many roles they play within the country. From significant employer, construction industry leader, FTSE100 listed company. Each of these tenents of Persimmon’s operations, actions and outcomes build a picture of a company that is deeply embedded in our national establishments.

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

MASS HOUSE BUILDING

25

/ HOUSE

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

HOME / HOUSE

HOME

_The Ideal Home Exhibition _New Platforms for Agency _Self Build / Self Directed

/02

27

Acorn Court, North Yorkshire // Acorn Gardens, County Durham // Agusta Park, Somerset // Akron Gate, West Midlands // Alderman Park, Derbyshire // Annick Grange, Ayrshire // Appleyard Park, Leicestershire // Ardsgoil,West Dunbartonshire // Ashwood Park, North Yorkshire // Ashworth Place, Devon // Augusta Park, Tyne and Wear // Avalon, Nottinghamshire // Avon Water Walk, Lanarkshire // Aykley Woods, County Durham // Badbury Park, Wiltshire // Bannerbrook Park, West Midlands // Barony Park, Scottish Borders // Beamhill Heights, Staffordshire // Beauchamp Grange, Norfolk // Becket’s Grove, Norfolk / Bedale Meadows, North Yorkshire // Bishop’s Gate ,Warwickshire // Bishops Green, County Durham // Bishops Mead, Gloucestershire // Bluebell Meadow, Norfolk // Bluebell Wood, West Midlands // Boyton Place, Suffolk // Braidwood Manor, Lanarkshire // Bramble Rise, Tyne and Wear // Branshaw Park, West Yorkshire // Bridgefield, Kent // Broadacre, East Yorkshire // Brookfields, Bristol // Brunton Meadows, Tyne and Wear // Buckton Place , Suffolk // Burgh Gate, East Lothian // Buttercup Leys, Derbyshire // Calder Grange, West Yorkshire // Canonbury Rise, Gloucestershire // Cardea, Peterborough // Carleton Meadows, Cumbria // Carn y Cefn, Gwent // Gastellum Grange, Essex // Castle Gardens, Lanarkshire // Castle Hill Grange, East Riding of Yorkshire // Cayton Meadows, North Yorkshire // Clevelands, Gloucestershire // Clyde Shores, Ayrshire // Clyde Valley Way, Lanarkshire // Coastal Dunes, Lancashire // College Hill Park, Derbyshire // College Park, Suffolk // Colliers Walk, Nottinghamshire // Colonial Wharf, Kent // Copperfield Place, Essex // Copperfields, Cornwall // Corelli, Dorset // Cote Farm, West Yorkshire // Coton Park, Warwickshire // Cotswold Vale, Warwickshire // Coverdale Phase 2, Devon // Cranbrook Galileo, Devon // Cranford Chase, Northamptonshire // Croft Rise, Lanarkshire // Crofton Grange, Northumberland Crofton Walk, Hampshire // Daisy’s View, Leicestershire // Dargavel Village North, Renfrewshire // Deerwood Park, Lancashire // Douglas Gardens, Lancashire // Duchess Gait, Argyll and Bute // Earls Gate, East Lothian // East Benton Rise, Tyne and Wear // Eaton Place, Warwickshire // Eden Woods, Fife // Edinburgh Park, Merseyside // Elkas Rise, Derbyshire // Elm Farm, Norfolk // Elmwood Park Court, Tyne and Wear // Emperor’s Court, Nottinghamshire // Eve Pare, Cornwall // Fairfields, Ayrshire // Flint Grange, Essex // Forge Wood, West Sussex // Foundry Meadows, East Sussex // Foxfields, West Midlands // Foxglove Heights, Somerset // Foxley Park, Norfolk // Germany Beck, North Yorkshire // Gilden Park, Essex // Gipping Mill, Suffolk // Golwg y Mynydd, Rhondda Cynon Taff // Greenacres, County Durham // Greenfields, Pembrokeshire // Greenlees, Lanarkshire // Greetwell Fields, Lincolnshire // Griffin Wharf , Suffolk // Hampton Gardens, Cambridgeshire // Hampton Park, West Sussex // Hansons Reach, Bedfordshire // Hanwell Chase, Oxfordshire // Harbourside View, Hampshire // Harford Mews, Devon // Harrow View West, Greater London // Hartley Grange, Peterborough // Hartnells Farm, Somerset // Hatchwood Mill, Berkshire // Hauxley Grange, Northumberland // Haven Point, South Glamorgan // Hawkers Place, Nottinghamshire // Heritage Gate, South Glamorgan // Heritage Green, County Durham // Highfield Farm, South Yorkshire // Hill Barton Vale, Devon // Hillfield Meadows, Tyne and Wear // Hillies View, South Yorkshire // Hillside View, Shropshire // Juniper Fields, Somerset // Kelvin Gait, East Dunbartonshire // Kennet Gardens, Berkshire // Kett’s Meadow, Norfolk // King Edwin Park, North Yorkshire // Kings Copse, Somerset // Kings Cove, City of Edinburgh // Kings Gate, Leicestershire // Kings Meadow, Midlothian // Kings Park, North Yorkshire // Kingsbrook, North Yorkshire // Kingsbury Meadows,West Yorkshire // Kingspark, Dundee // Knightswood Place, Essex // Ladgate Woods, Cleveland // Lang Loan, Mid Lothian // Lathro Meadows, Perth and Kinross // Laverock Rise, Lanarkshire // Lime Tree Court, Derbyshire // Lime Tree Park, Lanarkshire // Lindley Moor Meadows, West Yorkshire Llys Ystrad, Bridgend // Lodmoor Sands, Dorset // Longbridge Place, West Midlands // Low Moor Meadows , West Yorkshire Lyne Hill Meadow, Staffordshire // Malvern Rise. Worcestershire // Meadowbrook, Cleveland // Meadowcroft, Nottinghamshire // Melrose Gait, Scottish Borders // Meon Way Gardens, Warwickshire // Merchants Gait, West Lothian // Mercians Place, Staffordshire // Meridian Place, Hertfordshire // Merlins Lane, Pembrokeshire // Middles Farm Village, County Durham //Middridge Vale, County Durham // Millbeck Grange, County Durham // Millennium Farm, Lincolnshire // Milton Meadow, Mid Glamorgan // Monkswood, County Durham // Moorfield Park, Lancashire // Moorland Grove, Bristol // Moorlands Walk, County Durham // Mosswater View, Lanarkshire // Muirlands Park, Angus // Mulberry Gardens, East Riding of Yorkshire // Mulberry Grange, West Yorkshire // Naughton Meadows, Fife // Norton Gardens, County Durham // Norton Hall Meadow, Staffordshire // Nuthill Green, Gloucestershire // Oak Tree Gardens, Shropshire // Oakland Gardens, South Yorkshire // Oakley Grange, Gloucestershire // Orchard Croft, Norfolk // Otterham Park, Kent // Palmerston Heights, Devon // Paragon Park, West Midlands // Pare Brynderi, Carmarthenshire // Parklands, Kent // Parrett Gardens, Somerset // Pedlars Meadow, Norfolk // Pembridge Court, Herefordshire // Perry Park View, West Midlands // Persimmon @ Aylesham Village, Kent // Persimmon @ Birds Marsh View, Wiltshire // Persimmon @ Edmund Park, Somerset // Persimmon @ Heartlands, West Lothian // Persimmon @ Wellington Gate, Oxfordshire // Persimmon @ Windrush Place, Oxfordshire // Persimmon at White Rose Park, Norfolk //Persimmon Gardens, Norfolk // Persimmon Gardens, Greater Manchester // Phoenix Park, Bedfordshire // Phoenix Wharf, West Midlands // Plas Helyg, Bridgend Poppy Fields, Merseyside // Pottery Gardens, Staffordshire Priory Gardens, Suffolk // Priory Green, Somerset // Priory Meadows, Cornwall // Quantock View, Somerset // Regent Park, Wiltshire // Regents Place, Derbyshire // Rivendell, Nottinghamshire // Riverbank, Renfrewshire // Riverbourne Fields, Wiltshire // Roseberry Park, County Durham // Rosslyn Gait, Fife // Saltram Meadow, Devon // Samford Gardens, Suffolk // Sandfield Walk, Nottinghamshire // Saxon Grove, Wiltshire // Saxons Chase, Kent // Scholars Green, Northamptonshire // Seaton Vale, Northumberland // Sharpes Meadow, Essex // Shavington Park, Cheshire // Sherborne Fields, Hampshire // Solway View, Cumbria // South Haven, South Glamorgan // South Shore, Northumberland // South Shore Phase 2, Northumberland // Speckled Wood, Cumbria // Spring Meadows, Lancashire // St Andrews Park, Middlesex // St Clements Wells, Midlothian // St Edeyrns Village, Cardiff // St Georges Keep, Hampshire // St George’s Walk, Lancashire // St James Court, Tyne and Wear // St John’s Grange, Staffordshire” // St Nicholas Manor, Northumberland // St Peters Place, Wiltshire // Stanford Meadows, Essex // Stanton Chase, Wiltshire // Staynor Hall, North Yorkshire // Stewarts Loan, Dundee // Stortford Fields, Hertfordshire // Swan Park, Devon // Sycamore Gardens, West Yorkshire // Sycamore Gardens, Caerphilly // Sycamore Park, Glasgow // Sycamore Rise, Oxfordshire // Tarraby View, Cumbria // Tawcroft, Devon // The Beeches, Somerset // The Beeches, Glasgow // The Blossoms, Lancashire // The Boulevard, Glasgow // The Bridles, Carmarthenshire // The Croft, Bristol // The Fairways, Northumberland // The Fairways, Lancashire // The Furlongs @ Towcester Grange, Northamptonshire // The Goldings, Cornwall // The Grange, Warwickshire // The Grange, Lanarkshire // The Heath, Cheshire // The Hedgerows, Cheshire // The Landings, Lincolnshire // The Langlands, West Midlands // The Meadows, Northumberland // The Mile, East Riding of Yorkshire // The Oaks, West Midlands // The Oaks Apartments, West Midlands // The Paddocks,Twenty One, Hampshire // The Parish @ Llanilltem Village, Cardiff // The Pastures, Cheshire // The Pastures, East Ayrshire // The Shires, Lancashire // The Weald, North Yorkshire // The Wickets, Kent // The Willows, Midlothian // Thirlestane Court, Scottish Borders // Thornhill Wynd, Falkirk // Tir Y Bont, Bridgend Trelawny Place , Suffolk // Trevethan Meadows, Cornwall // Tundra Point, Bristol // Udall Grange, Staffordshire // Wakelyn Gardens, Derbyshire // Walmsley Park, Greater Manchester // Watermans Park, Kent // Waters Edge, Lancashire // Watling Place, Kent // Weavers Meadow, Suffolk // Weavers Wharf, West

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

HOME / HOUSE

How do they operate across the country?

In their 2019 annual report Persimmon listed 365 active sites across the UK. regarding the distribution and design of their core house types, they say:

29

THE CLANDON

THE CLAYTON

THE CORFE

THE HADLEIGH

Right: Ariel photographs taken in 1999 (bottom right) and 2016 (top right) showing land to the south of Leamington SPA, Warwickshire that and how the Bishops Gate development by Persimmon homes has spread through the landscape.

THE CHEDWORTH

Below: Core house types across 10 developments were mapped out to identify which houses were most popular so that they could be investigated in more detail.

THE CHATSWORTH

01.

THE BEECH

02.

03.

04.

05.

06.

07.

08.

09.

10.

THE ALNWICK

THE HANBURY

THE HATFIELD

THE HIMBLETON

THE HOLBORN

THE KENDAL

THE LIECESTER

THE LONGFORD

THE LONGTHORPE

THE LUMLEY

THE MARLYBONE

THE MOSELEY

THE MORDEN

THE ROSEBURY

THE RUFFORD

THE SOUTER

04.

09.

THE STAFFORD

08.

THE SUTTON

THE TOWNHOUSE

07.

THE WARWICK

06.

05. 03.

1 01. AVALON, MANSFIELD 2 02. AKRON GATE, WOLVERHAMPTON 3 03. FORGE WOOD, CRAWLEY 4 04. MONKSWOOD, DURHAM 5 05. ST PETERS, SAILSBURY 6 06. WOODS MEADOW, SUFFOLK 7 07. COPPERFIELDS, TRURO 8 08. POPPY FIELDS, LIVERPOOL 9 09. SOLWAY VIEW, WORKINGTON 10 10. BISHOPS GATE, LEAMINGTON SPA

THE WINSTER

THE WOLVESEY

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

01.

02.

10.

HOME / HOUSE

31

What does the data tell us? _ Despite a national living standard being launched in 2015, councils outside of London are not obliged to implement it in new homes. On average, a 2-bed Persimmon home is 12m2 smaller than standard, roughly equating to one whole bedroom. _ Most houses are laid out with a separate kitchen, living and dining room. Only the most modest homes combine all of these three spaces into one room. These are the homes they usually build and designate as affordable. _ The smallest width house they offer is ‘the souter’ with a width of only 3.8m. it has a footprint of only 37m2. _ The cheapest house you can buy is the Moseley in northwest England for £92,400. The most expensive is the Marlybone at £480,000.

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

HOME / HOUSE

33

2 Bed >

3 Bed >

5 Bed >

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

HOME / HOUSE

01.

01.

01.

01.

01.

01.

01.

01.

01.

01.

01.

?

35

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

HOME / HOUSE

37

1 2 3 4 TWO PIECES OF TOAST

HOME / HOUSE

How do persimmon construct their homes?

1 2

3 4 At what stage could the individual be introduced?

39

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

HOME / HOUSE

41

How do they sell them?

Persimmon supports more first time buyers onto the housing ladder than any other UK major house builder, with 50% of our private new homes being sold to first time buyers in 2019.

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

HOME / HOUSE

43

So what with all this information in hand?

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

HOME / HOUSE

45

MECHANISMS OF

/03 TWO PIECES OF TOAST

_Corporate _Legislative _Physical MECHANISMS OF CONTROL

CONTROL

47

Systems of Control What systems do major housebuilders use to maintain and advance their interests?

How does their close relationship with government through lobbying and donations protect them?

The housing developments built by major volume housebuilders in the UK exist under a discreet network of control that aims to strengthen and maintain the agency of the developers at the expense of the residents. It is not a stretch to conclude that the interests of the two, in many ways, are directly opposed.

Land: “More recently, speculative developers have come under fire for holding sites that have yet to be constructed. This socalled ‘landbanking’ has drawn political and public criticism, especially in relation to the housing shortage, with a belief that developers regulate the supply of land in order to artificially inflate prices” [The Guardian] What this makes clear is that these companies are not experiencing a recent or temporary position of power but rather that their continued role in the delivery of housing in the UK is protected. What good would it do to imagine this scale of housing being delivered without them, especially as they donate to and lobby heavily with the Conservative government to maintain their favourable position?

Contract: Persimmon and the other major housebuilders operating in the UK have come under sharp criticism recently for their strategic and blunt use of shallow freehold contracts and exploitative leasehold contracts.

A freehold contract entitles the homeowner to not just the house but the land it is built on too. In these situations, there is no landlord and the land and anything built on it when you purchased it are yours.

Persimmon, and others like them, have tapped into the extremely safe and moderately lucrative cash flows generated by leasehold developments, often selling them on to investors after the site is completed. The rates leasehold owners have to pay can increase at the landowner’s discretion as long as it is ‘fair and reasonable’ but this appears to be frequently abused leading to steep increases on ground rents year on year. As the leasehold runs its course, the home essentially loses value as the life left on it reduces.

Freehold properties are not exempt from similarly controlling practices. Homeowners are only finding out after they have purchased their new builds, being sold freehold, that they come with a myriad of restrictive covenants, which limits what the householder can and cannot do with it.

Once the estate is finished and handed over to a management company, the occupants who have purchased a property on the estate will still be charged an annual rent charge on their freehold – covering services such as the upkeep of the green spaces and the maintenance of the roads. This is commonplace now as fewer councils have the means to adopt roads on newly built estates. In essence, a Persimmon development is a private site with its own fees, management and rulebook that homeowners are subject to.

A leasehold contract “means that you just have a lease from the freeholder (sometimes called the landlord) to use the home for a number of years” (Homeowners Alliance). These leases usually last from 60 to 150 years on new builds completed today.

Local Government:

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

MECHANISMS OF CONTROL

Since the de-funding of local authorities under the Cameron government, large house-builders have become an irreplaceable source of funding for local councils and communities. Embedded in the development application is something called a Section 106 clause which is where the council will request of a developer certain contributions to local communities resources to support the expected development such as schools, upgrades to facilities and infrastructures. SMEs are often priced out of being able to offer the same packages whereas the large companies can absorb the cost of building somehting like a new medical centre within their developments.

Government schemes

Affordability

S106 contributions

Leasehold / Freehold

Planning power

Commercial Land

Re

spo

nsi

Affordability

bilit

y

Legislative

Restrictive covenants

Permissions

Cost

Purchase Process

Purchasing power

Permitted development

Local Objections

Physical y

Difficult

Social

Building Regulations

Complexity Layout

Disruption

Experience / Skill

Components Detailing 49

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

MECHANISMS OF CONTROL

How do Persimmon tell you how to live?

“our goal is to make your house feel like your home before you have even collected the keys. Key to achieving this is giving you the creative freedom to add your own style and personality to every room though our fabulous ‘Finishing Touches’ collection”

51

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

MECHANISMS OF CONTROL

53

“Imagine having your brand new home, exactly the way you want it, ready for you when you move in. That’s what Finishing Touches can do for you…”

_Persimmon Homes

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

MECHANISMS OF CONTROL

55

CONTROL: “The power to influence or direct people’s behavior or the course of events.”

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

MECHANISMS OF CONTROL

EMANCIPATION: “To be free from restraint, control, or the power of another”

57

PLATFORMS EMANCIPATION TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PLATFORMS FOR EMANCIPATION

FOR

/04

_The Model _The Object _The Outcome 59

Are we ready for a new golden era of DIY?

An era that departs from the last 30 decades of increasingly commodified, commercialised and controlled domestic environments?

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PLATFORMS FOR EMANCIPATION

61

First published in 1972, Freedom to Build advocated for a redistribution of control in the actions of housing. Reacting to the emerging legacy of modernist planning and housing that sought to house numbers of people in centrally administered architectures, it presented a collection of essays on increasing autonomy in housing.

Positioned against the backdrop of increasing housing provision by both government-led housing schemes and large corporations, they proposed a redistribution of control where, by putting dwellers in control of their homes, massive gains could be made (or recuperated) in terms of cost, quality and potential. Their position, in summary, was that the needs of people are best met by those people, and it could and should be the role of architects and planners to arrange the conditions that allow this, rather than arrange the complete provision of housing in its entirety.

One of the interesting parts of this approach, not just limited to the interests of those writing in this book, is the ability of other-than-architect actors to produce effective housing. In the UK, Walter Segal was one of the pioneers of this school of thought, who through his developments around the same time in South East London showed that, within a framework and with the right support, people could position themselves as more than capable providers for themselves and their community within the field of housing production.

“the authors are emphatic in their contention that millions of households could do for themselves in housing, with certain minimal aids, what is not being done for them at all or is being done badly for them, and at an extravagant price in wasted public resources

- J. Turner & R. Fichter

A lot of the efforts and interests of these practitioners were founded in the counter-cultural revolution of the ’60s where an ‘each one creates for themselves’ attitude inspired many people to react to the increasing commercialisation and commoditisation of architectural space by seeking to provide for themselves on their own terms.

Whilst a lot more should and could be said about the efficacy and relevance of this practice when discussed in light of housing in the UK today, two key factors that this project puts forward as obstacles to total freedom need to be put highlighted. In order to have the ability to act with near-total freedom in the built environment, one would need to be free from planning and regulatory frameworks that control what can and cannot be done. They would also need land on which to carry out their own self-build projects.

In the UK, land is increasingly scarce, expensive, hard to obtain permission for and governed by strict set of building standards. These factors, coupled with the unchanged reality that to build a house for oneself takes a lot of ambition, time and effort, mean that a revolution such as the one they proposed remains out of reach.

What can we do about it apart from abandoning all hope of putting dwellers in control and submit to the structures, both cultural and physical, that we are being housed in?

The initial research into Persimmon Homes uncovered an extensive network of control that has been designed to keep them in good business. Amongst their approaches, is the

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PLATFORMS FOR EMANCIPATION

practice of land banking where they aim to have on hand at least a minimum of 6 years worth of housing supply to build out homes on. Coupled with local authorities’ dependence on major house-builders for S106 contributions to bolster their diminished budgets, we have a situation where if the land is going to be built on, it is likely that it will be by one of these major house-builders. Assuming that the solutions to these political mechanisms of control lie outside of the remit of architectural speculation, what can we do in the meanwhile?

Where do the potential benefits of the ideas presented in Freedom to Build actually lie? Is it in seeking planning permission, arranging services to connect land to existing amenities or laying foundations and infrastructures? Or is it in creating space, arranging realities and letting homeowners have agency and knowledge about the environment they live in?

FORM

FUNCTION

ACTOR

SCOPE 1

1 - 156

2

157 - 312

3

313 - 468

4

467 - 624

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

“If co-operation and distribution of design tasks would be an explicit skill in the profession, the introduction of the inhabitant in the process would not be a big deal.”

_John Tuner

The mass housing industry is characterised by a hierarchical network. Can we add to the end of it an open system that creates, by its very nature, diversity?

OPTIONS

TYPE

ROOMS

LOCATION

Left: The diagram on the top, re-created from N.J. Habraken’s ‘Supports’ text details two systems of production/design. On the top, an open network is illustrated where at each stage, four different options are available. This could mean that through the design and construction of a home 624 different options are potentially likely.

Below this is a closed/heirachical system where, at each stage, a binary decision is made, resulting in only 8 potential outcomes.

63

“On the one hand, we will have, as we commonly do have, supralocal agencies which plan for and provide for peoples housing needs, with the result that the people so planned for and provided for turn into consumers or passive beneficiaries” “on the other hand, if housing is treated as a verbal entity, as a means to human ends, as an activity rather than a manufactured and packaged product, decision making power must, of necessity, remain in the hands of the users themselves”

_john turner

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PLATFORMS FOR EMANCIPATION

“Mass housing pretends that the involvement of the individual and all that it implies simply ought not to exist. Man no longer houses himself, he is housed.”

“It is time, then, to break the bond of mass housing, and at least to inquire what the individual can contribute to the housing process”

_John Turner

SPECIALSITS

SERVICE PROVIDER

GROUNDWORKS

SPECIALSITS BRICKLAYER

SERVICE PROVIDER

GROUNDWORKS

BRICKLAYER

SPECIALSITS

In light of the control exerted by mass house builders, the individual should be thought of as any other acting independently...

PERSIMMON HOMES

PERSIMMON HOMES

SERVICE PROVIDER

GROUNDWORKS

SPECIALSITS BRICKLAYER

PERSIMMON HOMES

SERVICE PROVIDER PLUMBER

GROUNDWORKS ELECTRICIAN

CARPENTER BRICKLAYER

PLUMBER

PERSIMMON HOMES

CARPENTER

CARPENTER

ELECTRICIAN

ELECTRICIAN

PLUMBER

PLUMBER

BRICKLAYER

BRICKLAYER

OTHER

OTHER

Owners, Family, Neighbours, Community, Skilled trades Professionals, Sme’s...

65

Aboce: A&E Construction from the West Midlands posts detailed and professinal videos on social media sites such as youtube that show ‘the right way’ to do things.

Below: Non-preofessinal content producers also post ‘instructables’ on how to DIY for an almost unlimited range of projects and techniques.

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PLATFORMS FOR EMANCIPATION

There is not just one way of doing something...

There truly is never only one way of doing things. Think about painting rooms in a house. Persimmon could do it outside of any input from a customer who would then have to accept or re-work the finished article. The customer could appoint decorators to do it for them, giving them control over the products and finishes as well as the overall cost and schedule of the works.

The internet, through platforms such as Youtube, Instagram and Tik Tok, is host to an exponentially increasing number of instructional videos that show you how to do things.

Born out of an interesting mix of pressures and ambitions such as the constant need to produce content to feature on platforms and the desire to self-publicise to increase exposure or simply show people what you love, the internet is a gold mine for learning.

Within the practice of construction (any trade-related activity), the ability to act is to some extent guarded by a range of qualifications, accreditations and industry bodies that claim authority on how and by who things must be done.

This professional oversight however, is only valid within professional jurisdictions which, for the sake of this project, cover the construction sites of mass housing.

They could also do it themselves, through hiring, purchasing or borrowing equipment from any number of sources. They could ask a friend who has experience in painting houses to help them? Maybe they don’t want to do it at all, and they would rather spend their time and money elsewhere. Either way, giving people the choice in the procurement, process and products that contribute the late-stage construction of homes would serve, in many different ways, to deliver agency to the occupant. By bringing a customer into these processes, we offer them the ability to arrange for themselves what they want, can afford and can imagine.

Short of not knowing what they want or what they can afford, potential homeowners are primed to create for themselves, not just in terms of physical production, but more in terms of specification and the wide variety of things that can make a house a home.

By being a little more specific about how we distribute the trades, skills and professional competencies across the construction timeline of a building, can we open up new networks of procurement and production that challenge this end-to-end control? What this wealth of information on sites such as youtube does, goes beyond teaching you how to do things; it gives you the opportunity to see something being done and ask yourself: How would I want to do this? Can I do it? What other ways are there of doing this that suits me better?

By seeing the process of construction, decoration, maintenance and refurbishment played out in real-time, people have the opportunity to place themselves in the reality of production and, from this vantage point, ask themselves what would work best.

67

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PLATFORMS FOR EMANCIPATION

69

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PLATFORMS FOR EMANCIPATION

Things that are not finished have potential. Can we capture this quality in the way we deliver homes, even thrive in it?

“the inhabitants of these areas face a promiscuity of a new order, horizontal this time: houses a few centimeters apart, gardens overlooking each other. You can see everything, you know everything that’s going on in your neighbor’s house.”

A Loree Des Champs is a photo series by French photographer Loic Vendarme where he explored the phenomenon of urban sprawl across Paris’ periurban territories. I was struck by his ambition to avoid stigmatisation of the people that live there and instead to capture the reality of these landscapes as they exist in a limbo between beginning and end. In his own words, this landscapes represents a condition that is “Everywhere and yet nowhere, repetitive and juxtaposed.”

71

Aboce: Draft visualisation exploring the state of construction and the stages houses go through mass housing sites in the UK. Right: Bishops Gate development by Persimmon Homes. Jan 2021.

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PLATFORMS FOR EMANCIPATION

73

What can be achieved if time is taken on the careful arrangement and confluence of standard elements?

An out of sight out of mind approach to construction in the UK is dangerous. A lack of care extends beyond the visual.

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PLATFORMS FOR EMANCIPATION

75

“Couple who moved into new persimmon home claim it had 700 things wrong with it” TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PLATFORMS FOR EMANCIPATION

Their homes are rarely ‘finished’ to a standard anyone should rightly expect them to be at the point of sale (contracts signed and keys exchanged). The communal areas of the development are typically unfinished as the developers rush to complete and release homes for sale on the market. New residents are assured that the unsurfaced roads, flooded greens and unleveled pavings will be completed very soon but they can typically wait years for basic infrastructure to be completed to a satisfactory level as the management of the estates is sold off to an investor who aims to keep their returns high by keeping their contributions low.

The structures of the homes are fraught defects too, from the structurally significant to the potentially life-threatening.

Due to the nature of the closed construction methods (cavity walls being built and then pumped full of insulation), fully finished interiors (no opportunity for non-destructive inspection) and a limited chance for external inspection, Persimmon homes have been building these homes to a sub-standard quality on countless instances. Cavity barriers are not installed on entire developments, insulation in wall cavities frequently does not penetrate along the whole wall.

Poor foundations lead to sagging and cracking throughout entire streets. Brick pointing is frequently unsightly but they also happily sign off on structures that are ludicrously out of plumb and inconsistently set out.

Internally, when the structure isn’t cracking the internal finishing and causing the floor to break from the wall, detailing is typically poor. Paintwork is messy, doors and architraves are installed badly, balustrades wobble and floorboards creak. Their ambition of having the perfect home ready for you on the day you move in is noble, but way off the mark.

These homes and streets are already passed on to customers in an unfinished state, yet currently they do not get anything in return.

77

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PLATFORMS FOR EMANCIPATION

“We will use simple building methods that empower the homeowner rather than exclude them” -Naked House

Aboce: tbc.

Left: tbc.

79

DEVELOP_BUILDING A HOME _Building a Structure _Building a Product _Building a Process

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

DEVELOPMENT

MENT

/05

81

“Home making was perceived by most as an uninspiring exercise, usually driven by utilitarian necessity... but then things changed... the purely functional is no longer acceptable ... homemaking has become a glamorous pursuit, a national passion...”

- Ideal Homes [D. Ryan, 1997]

The Ideal Home Exhibition “Their hold was so complete, in fact, that the home builder was left no say whatsoever in the construction of his house, choice of fitting and decoration... Our task was clear. It was important to undermine the influence of the architect without delay, remove his stranglehold from the whole industry [...]. I was determined that the public should know the multitudinous things in existence that could make a house a home.”

Now replace ‘homebuilder’ with homeowner and replace architect with mass house-builder and you essentially have the brief for this project. The power dynamic has shifted. Where architects once held responsibility and a valued position as creators of homes, they have now been superseded and replaced with powerful speculative housebuilders.

The Ideal Home Exhibition tells the story of a different point in time when the means of developing suburbia were more varies and the diversity of products on offer grew to reflect

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

DEVELOPMENT

83

Theres something about the adjacency of housing developments and distribution centers...

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

DEVELOPMENT

Left and right: Exploration of realising this project as an exhibition of standard homes, a contemporary reflection of the Ideal Homes Exhibition.

Above: There is a potential adjacency of mass housing developments and large distribution warehouses in Peri-urban territories. The idea was to build and exhibit a range of standard house types by major developers as a mechanism to lay out the research of the project.

85

Land currently under control by residents.

Could this extend to driveways, frontages, shared landscaping and parks?

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

DEVELOPMENT

Left: Poppy Fields Masterplan.

Opposite: Collage exploring what parts make up the masterplan. Houses, Roads, Gardens. How can the private landscaped areas be a part of this strategy?

What happens around the house?

87

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

DEVELOPMENT

Left: The existing masterplan of the Poppy Fields development outside Liverpool.

Above: Core house type models are consistent across developments but there are huge ranges in the adjacent land and layout of these plots.

There is potential not just withi the home, but the area around it also. Why is this left out of the core house type strategy?

89

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

DEVELOPMENT

Inserting the new strategy.

At this point in the development of the project, I had been exploring new housing layouts. re-arranging the houses in their adjacent landscapes to create opportunities.

The problem with this is that the developments are so incoherently master planned and would therefore need a near-total rearrangement to successfully accommodate this new structure.

To keep the focus of the project sharp, what if we leave the master plan alone and just work within the existing footprint?

Top Left: A new master-planned area for Permission homes that supports an ordered arrangement of homes in order to formalise land around them that could be activated under permitted development.

Bottom Left: Master-planning the development within the boundaries of the built footprint rather than inclusive of the streets and gardens.

Right: Ariel views of Persimmon developments, any local, regional or national formal layout is hard to find or anticipate.

91

PERSIM- MON >

_The Model _The Object _The Outcome TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PERSIMMON > PERMISSION

PERMISSION /06

93

‘Permission homes brings something different to a market where standing out really isn’t that hard. We’re interested in doing what we can, as well as we can, and leaving what you do best up to you...

We build the house,You make it a home.’

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PERSIMMON > PERMISSION

By reworking Persimmon’s marketing I am trying to tell the story of a new way of engaging with homes. This starts to make apparent my intention to clearly define parts of the operating system and buildings that I don’t change and those that I do.

It’s interesting in the marketing collateral of Persimmon Homes that they only advertise the house plan of the homes and leave out the specification of the garden and any adjacent land that forms part of the plot. Logically this is a product of their core-house type model where the developments are populated with house types and land is divided up around them in a way that is specific to each development. Surely the land that the purchasers are buying should also be detailed and included in the material that they base their decisions on.

95

MAKE-DO RE-DO DO

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PERSIMMON > PERMISSION

When you buy a home, what do you get? What do we tell people about their homes, about what they are made from and how? What do we tell people about what they can not see but may need to know about such as underground services, extents of foundations, boundary lines, enveloped of extension?

A short film was documenting a homeowner and a builder talking through the plans, options, permissions and potential of their home was produced to capture the feeling that the template of the house I am proposing is just a starting point. By giving people permission to act within and beyond it through drawings and documentation, we can open up possibilities and encourage increased degrees of realization and specification under the control of the homeowner.

97

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PERSIMMON > PERMISSION

Opposite: This stage explored what a developer like Persimmon would do with a space like this. Modelled on the tropes of show homes, the template still allows for a traditional arrangement and decoration of space.

Left: Uninhabited Permission template.

What would persimmon do?

99

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PERSIMMON > PERMISSION

101

Right: A template with a side extension creating more living space, allowing for a downstairs bedroom to be added.

Opposite: A template with side extension with a relocated front door and bathroom.

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PERSIMMON > PERMISSION

Left: Negative space collage expressing the limit of control of the house builders and implying the potential delivered to the residents.

VECTORWORKS EDUCATIONAL VERSION Above: Diagrams of Persimmon Homes house plans being appropriated under the new Permission System.

Can the system protect the street and open up elsewhere?

VECTORWORKS EDUCATIONAL VERSION

103

What does it mean to design a solution to take place across an entire portfolio of core house types?

Persimmon wants to build half of its homes using its Space4 timber frame factory by 2030. What if it built half of each house this way?

Implementing a system over and over...

Imagine if we can get a developer to say: “Actually we’re so proud of the way we make our homes, we want to show you all our hard work.”

The entire mass housebuilding industry has a reputation for poor build quality that it cannot shake and is taking little meaningful action to fix. The problem is systemic and deeply ingrained in the method of operation. When homes are built for profit, corners will be cut to keep costs down. Cheap materials, labour and quality control processes are favoured over those that would be necessary to ensure the type of quality we would like to expect from a home.

In this new brave world of “too big to fail” and “too big to fight” corporate dominance, we have become accustomed to poor quality.

More of a cultural/corporate issue than a design and construction one, we know what a solution to this problem would look like. Build slower, build more carefully, subject works to effective quality control checks and operate under an appropriate standards framework that ensured work wasn’t botched, covered up or simply passed off as satisfactory to customers despite it being way short of acceptable.

This structural strategy suggests a potential solution. Built from the requirement that Persimmon can continue to build homes as quickly and as cost-efficiently as they currently do, what if they blended their mode of delivery to be a hybrid of traditional construction and modern methods of off-site manufacture?

The labour, material and management cost savings of offsite timber frame construction could free up room in the construction schedule, balance sheet and management system to ensure quality across the whole build. Whilst Persimmon would see the opportunities and benefits of timber framing as a way to increase the overall profitability of its homes, it could be a solution to make room in its operations to increase their quality and strengthen their position with customer/industry trust rather than shareholder satisfaction.

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PERSIMMON > PERMISSION

105

Right: Exhibition proposal cataloging built actions in the UK’s mass housing construction industry.

Opposite: 1:20 condensed detail plan and section.

CAVE

LUTYENS

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PERSIMMON > PERMISSION

TENT

ROGERS

107

Reconstructing the structure

Above: Existing and proposed structural diagrams showing how timber structures have been used in areas of the building which are open to occupant appropriation.

Opposite: Full structural deconstruction and reconstruction.

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PERSIMMON > PERMISSION

>

?

109

VECTORWORKS EDUCATIONAL VERSION

3000

Space planning for variety and change...

800

2913

EXTERNAL

600

2440

4309

307

3733 1801

899 1340

3296 910

665

1135

885

VECTORWORKS EDUCATIONAL VERSION TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PERSIMMON > PERMISSION

4040

2697

8090

910

2715

3140

315

INTERNAL

VECTORWORKS EDUCATIONAL VERSION

VECTORWORKS EDUCATIONAL VERSION

VECTORWORKS EDUCATIONAL VERSION

VECTORWORKS EDUCATIONAL VERSION

By creating a starting template that has been designed and tested against a range of configurations the designs hopes to offer a way out of the core housing model where each house has one form, one layout and by extension, only one suggested way of living.

If each house was designed to be a little more generous in its space, a little more thoughtful in the size of returns, location of openings and layout of key elements such as stairs, bathroom and services then there could be more than one way of occupying it.

If there was no explicit reference of what to do, would each person do something meaningfully different?

Would chaos ensue? What patterns would emerge?

These appropriations can happen initially, at the point of the first occupation or, due to the secondary nature of their installation, can be iterated over time as owners’ needs change or new occupants move in.

VECTORWORKS EDUCATIONAL VERSION

VECTORWORKS EDUCATIONAL VERSION

Opposite: Ground floor Plan of a Permission Home. Key sizes relate to builting components. A spatial generosity anticipates various futures.

Above: A series of plans representing different domestic arrangements from the same starting template.

111

By exploring the moment when a house becomes your home, this series of images aim to capture a sense of potential. Can we think about more than just what picture to put on the wall?

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PERSIMMON > PERMISSION

113

Side of House: Persimmon > Permission

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PERSIMMON > PERMISSION

Opposite: In between two homes in a typical Persimmon development.

Above: In between two homes in a Permission development.

One car parking space has been relinquished to create a side extension to create a bigger living area for a growing family.

115

Rear of House: Persimmon > Permission

Below: A typical street corner on a Persimmon development.

Opposite: A typical street corner on a Permission development.

Boundary walls, gardens and adjacent spaces diversify in accordance to individual occupants requirements.

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PERSIMMON > PERMISSION

117

Above: Downstairs in a 2 bed Persimmon Homes ‘Morden’.

Opposite: Downstairs in a Permission Home early on in an occupants possession. Prior to internal fit out, the occupants will install a deck over extended foundations to the rear with a large opening to the garden.

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PERSIMMON > PERMISSION

Downstairs Living Area: Persimmon > Permission 119

Upstairs Hallway: Persimmon > Permission

Below: Upstairs in a 2 bed Persimmon Homes ‘Morden’.

Opposite: Upstairs in a Permission Home early on in an occupants possession. A loft stair cassette has been installed accessing the attic space for a third bedroom.

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

PERSIMMON > PERMISSION

121

IN

/07 TWO PIECES OF TOAST

IN PRACTICE

PRACTICE _The Model _The Object _The Outcome

123

What could a future of developments co-authored by its residents look like?

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

This was never the focus of the project. As it nears various forms of exhibition, both in exams and in and potential graduate shows, the question of what would / could all of this look like becomes a little more interesting.

IN PRACTICE

125

An experiment:

With a housing model like this, the unpredictability, variety and individuality of late-stage additions is both the best part and the hardest to speculate on without some kind of realworld test. So, why not run one?

VECTORWORKS EDUCATIONAL VERSION

For the end of year show I would propose exhibiting the outcomes of 8 different people occupying their homes individual / collectively. Through a 1:100 model showing the parts of the landscape arranged by Permission and the parts arranged outside of its control, It could present an interesting narrative on co-authoring private/public space and the effects this can have on these kinds of developments.

By documenting the plans and ambitions of these 8 subjects, it also asks interesting questions about the role of an architect in these situations.

VECTORWORKS EDUCATIONAL VERSION

VECTORWORKS EDUCATIONAL VERSION

VECTORWORKS EDUCATIONAL VERSION

VECTORWORKS EDUCATIONAL VERSION

VECTORWORKS EDUCATIONAL VERSION

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

IN PRACTICE

127

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

IN PRACTICE

One of the key propositions here is that this type of development is massive enough to negotiate for itself a different set of principles to operate under. In many ways it already does.

With over 250,000 homes being built like this each year, we could invest in a system that is purpose-built for a better outcome for everyone rather than just the house builders.

Sir Oliver Letwin’s ‘Independent Review of Build Out: Final Report’ gave recommendations to the government in 2017 on how to “close the significant gap between the number of housing completions and the amount of land allocated or permissioned on large sites”.

Amongst a general new direction in which he set out to increase diversity of housing offerings on large sites to tackle low market absorption rates, was an interesting provocation on the potential for special planning rules. He recommends the government “adopt a new set of planning rules specifically designed to apply to all future large sites (initially those over 1,500 units) in areas of high housing demand, requiring those developing such sites to provide a diversity of offerings...”

It’s worth noting the report expects that the S106 instrument will be the appropriate means to incentivise large housebuilders to conform to the diversity planning policies, essentially meaning they will have to pay a significant financial penalty through S106 contributions if they fail to do so. We’ve seen in the past that, due to their size, it is only the large housebuilders that can afford to wrestle with this S106 contribution and, this policy could further exacerbate the situation where smaller housebuilders a priced out from delivering homes.

Currently, these special circumstances favour the developer.

What if we create special circumstances that favour the occupants, the community and the landscape?

It would be interesting to see how these new planning rules would demand a diversity of offerings. What kind of diversity would they elicit? Unfortunately, big business and Conservative government initiatives have a tendancy to veer their ambitions for diversity down the path of decorative variance and nostalgic reference. Whilst the policy could bring about a diversity of typologies leading to developments with more than just an array of village-like detached houses straddling winding roads, I still think we will be relying on these same large companies to plan, procure, build and finish our homes.

Without a total deconstruction of the supralocal agencies that deliver the homes in these developments, could a diversity of homes be achieved by diversifying the responsibilities and control over their late-stage construction?

129

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY 131

AS A LIST OF MY WEB BROWSER BOOKMARKs...

• • •

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09613210302003?needAccess=true https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/ pdf/10.1080/0042098032000074236 Housebuilding should be confined to factories - ProQuest Chasing a Snail: Innovation and Housebuilding Firms’ Strategies.: EBSCOhost Michael Ball - Housing and Construction: Is there a Future for . . . Architecture? - YouTube Why not build faster? Explaining the speed at which British house-builders develop new homes for owner-occupation - ProQuest https://files.cargocollective.com/c186433/HousingCrisisMap2_slides.pdf LocalHomes3.2-compressed.pdf - Google Drive The DfMA Housing Manual - Google Docs Bloomsbury Architecture Library Platform - The Architecture of Neoliberalism: How Contemporary Architecture Became an Instrument of Control and Compliance Sun Co-op 🌞 UK housebuilding | Financial Times https://constructingexcellence.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Constructing-the-team-The-Latham-Report.pdf Public Practice | Resources UK’s biggest housebuilders of 2019 revealed 4 bedroom detached house for sale in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, CV33 9SW - Plot 198 https://www4.shu.ac.uk/research/cresr/sites/shu.ac.uk/ files/profits-before-volume-housebuilders-crisis-housing-supply.pdf ‎citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.197.1876&rep=rep1&type=pdf Frontiers | Mass Customization in the House Building Industry: Literature Review and Research Directions | Built Environment Buildings | Free Full-Text | Evaluating the Impact of Building Information Modeling (BIM) on Mass House Building Projects | HTML Technical Guidance Documents | NHBC Britain’s New Build Scandal: Channel 4 Dispatches | Channel 4 The History of Council Housing A PHILOSOPHY OF ENABLING: THE WORK OF CEDRIC PRICE on JSTOR The British don’t want to live in new-build homes. No wonder | Housing | The Guardian Industrialised house-building – development and conceptual orientation of the field | Emerald Insight Architecture on Film: The Dilapidated Dwelling + Patrick Keiller Q&A / Intro | Architecture Foundation Michel Feher, The Age of Appreciation: Eight Lectures on the Neo-Liberal Condition by Goldsmiths UOL | Free Listening on SoundCloud https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.190550

TWO PIECES OF TOAST

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

House Building Time Lapse | Kinsbrook | Brooks Green | West Sussex | January 2012 to April 2013 - YouTube How are New Houses in the UK Built? Introduction & Externals - YouTube ‎library.rca.ac.uk/client/en_GB/2015/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ILS$002f0$002fSD_ ILS:115974/ada https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/301204025.pdf Spatial Agency: Giancarlo de Carlo Tools for Conviviality The Medium is the Message Lucien Kroll (1927-) - Architectural Review jesko fezer - Google Search PREVI Lima 1969 – Transfer A Ladder of Citizen Participation - Sherry R Arnstein Re-settlement ‎thematicdesign.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Molenvliet%20for%20Thematicdesign.org%20-new%20 main%20text.pdf Home Dulux - May The gloss In Ross - UK Advert - YouTube Homebase 2014 Home advert - YouTube Anglian Home Improvements June 2013 TV Commercial - YouTube MyBuilder - MyBuilder TV ad 2020: If Homes Could Talk | Facebook Build a life at B&Q. What a day it was the day you found out You Can Do It. - YouTube NETWORKS, Online Whiteboard for Visual Collaboration Future Homes Commission Report by Royal Institute of British Architects - issuu Copper Lane co-housing with Simon Henley on Vimeo Typology: The semi-detached house - Architectural Review Architects Design Just 2% of All Houses–Why? – Common Edge An Architect Defends the Suburbs - The Atlantic The creators of England’s inter-war suburbs on JSTOR https://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/default/files/jrf/migrated/ files/1842631128.pdf Revisit: Quinta Monroy by Elemental - Architectural Review https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/ file/830643/190910_Tech_Guide_for_publishing.pdf ‘Rabbit hutch’ homes should be consigned to the past, say architects | Society | The Guardian Redrow commits to traditional methods TITLE MAP What land is owned by housing developers? – Who owns England?

Home - YouTube Cutting corners - Investors’ Chronicle Naked House: Strip Club | RIBAJ MyHouse | Architects, urban designers and researchers 18 Suburban housing, Stevenage L.pdf - Sergison Bates architects Woods Meadow Construction Timelapse - YouTube LOIC VENDRAME Timelapse on 7 New Build Houses in the UK - YouTube ECO TRUS CONVERTS ANOTHER ROOM - YouTube Outrageous: Persimmon builds leasehold houses – for the never ending income stream - Leasehold Knowledge

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Partnership Ramsdens :: Restrictive Covenants in Residential Property ...https://www.ramsdens.co.uk › blog › restrictive-covenants...

Volume housebuilders not the answer to housing crisis, Richard Rogers says | News | Building Playing the Housing Game for Profit: the British Volume Housebuilding Project | ArchDaily Volume Hysteria: House Builders cash in | Dennis Sharp Architects Buyers of brand-new homes face £20,000 bill to make them greener | Environment | The Guardian https://www.homeof2030.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/A-Public-Vision-for-the-Home-of-2030-July-2020.pdf https://www.hbf.co.uk/documents/9690/R173-HBF2020Brochure-v7.pdf https://www.persimmonhomes.com/corporate/media/298539/space4-presentation-3rd-november-16.pdf https://www.persimmonhomes.com/corporate/media/397416/findings-of-the-independent-review.pdf Prefabs sprout as Britain embraces timber-frame housing | Business | The Guardian Builders turn to bolt-together homes in Brexit Britain | Reuters Building a House: The Step-by-Step Guide | Homebuilding Outrage as help-to-buy boosts Persimmon profits to £1bn | Business | The Guardian Cost to build a house? - Page 1 - Homes, Gardens and DIY - PistonHeads UK https://www.persimmonhomes.com/corporate/media/433074/persimmon_agm-2020_final.pdf New housing estates ‘identical and soulless’ - YouTube Decision day looms for massive housing plan near A50 in Derby - Derbyshire Live Persimmon Homes Publish “Difficult Truths” Independent Review ‎www.brand-newhomes.co.uk/persimmon-meeting-recording.mp3 Persimmon Archives - New Home Blog Father-of-two forces developer Persimmon to tear down his new build home and build it from scratch | Daily Mail Online Who will help families forced to live in half-built homes? | This is Money End ‘big eight’ house builders’ dominance to fix housing market, say MPs | The Planner The worst brickwork?: A new contender. - Building Defect Analysis Cavity Closers - New Build - Profix ‎www.utfl.co.uk/pdf/standard%20spec.pdf Beam and Block Floor Suppliers - Bison Precast Concrete Wickes Galvanised Joist Hanger 50 x 200mm | Wickes. co.uk IG LTD 50-70mm Steel Cavity Wall Lintel | Wickes.co.uk Site Bricklaying Trench Block footings UK - YouTube How can I identify different types of bricks Standard-Roof-Truss.jpg 969×597 pixels New ‘flash’ scheme to train 15,000 bricklayers introduced by Government to fast-track the number of new homes built The corporate timber frame time-bomb - Renegade Inc

C.1: BRICK A R: 181 G: 114 B: 71 C.2: BRICK B R: 125 G: 75 B: 67 C.3: ROOF A R: 76 G: 80 B: 98 C.4: ROOF B R: 170 G: 97 B: 80 C.5: FENCE R: 227 G: 160 B: 90 C.6: BLOCK R: 187 G: 179 B: 185 WHITE R: 0 G: 0 B: 0 BLACK R: 255 G: 255 B: 255

133

TWO PIECES OF TOAST: TWO PIECES OF TOAST