Engaging with all relevant stakeholders, including residents, industry, practitioners, local authorities, community-led organisations, and researchers, is critical to ensure that solutions developed for the transformation of our homes are both practical and acceptable.
Co-design involves working closely with residents, industry, local authorities, social housing, community and not-for profit organisations and researchers.
Through charettes, interviews and workshops with the residents of the demonstration homes and other estates across the UK, as well as others from local authorities, social housing, industry, community groups, not-for profit organisations and academics valuable insights have been obtained to inform the design of the demonstration homes and the development of our Design Catalogue.
To explore how homes can be transformed at a scale, we have interviewed and delivered workshops with stakeholders from local government, social housing providers, contractors, community organisations, policymakers, resident engagement specialists and academics.
Together, are exploring the implementation of retrofit, governance, delivery approaches, tenant and resident engagement and co-design principles to transform the UK’s housing stock.
Insights are helping our team map the real-world processes involved in implementing the proposed transformations and identify how delivery models could be improved and scaled effectively.
Developing practical skills is vital for transforming our housing stock.
A review of existing training programmes and a survey to construction and retrofit professionals has helped to identify key skills and knowledge gaps across the sector.
Design of the demonstration homes has stimulated the delivery of training on the use of innovative biobased materials and also reflection on how information on understanding the need for transformation and the solutions applied are conveyed to residents for effective use.
Co-design involves working closely with different stakeholders, including residents, communities, project partners, and others who need to be part of the transformation of homes. This ensures that the solutions are responsive to needs rather than assumptions. This highly participatory approach ensures that solutions are co-created with communities, reflecting experiences and valued knowledge of place and home. This is integral to both the development of demonstration homes and design of the catalogue of solutions.
Training programmes are being evaluated to enable the enhancement of skills of different stakeholders to transform homes. This includes technical training for industry professionals to equip them with the skills needed to implement and maintain solutions, as well as seminars and workshops tailored to diverse groups. This approach ensures that stakeholders, from policymakers to community members, gain relevant knowledge and skills to support and sustain the design and implementation of innovative solutions to transform homes going forward.
