LiveNearLewes

An exciting collaborative housing project near Lewes, East Sussex

Genuinely exemplary environmental standards

This project has the potential to make a significant contribution to the achievement of sustainable housing in East Sussex and beyond. If this project is built, the best-practice standard for UK housing would be raised.

~ This project would draw upon the aspirations and skills of many of its future residents, ensuring that all investments work over the long term. We would be free from the conventional constraint of building houses to sell at the lowest price to the mass-market. Our houses are would be cost-effective over the long term, not just at the point of completion.

~ We would design the strength and effectiveness of the future community of residents as much as we design the grounds and buildings. Options for this project include: the provision of affordable housing to those able to spend time either building or working on the site; perpetualtion of community by the property leases asking residents to take part in a community association so that shared decisions are not left to chance; and provision for shared facilities such as meeting rooms, workshop, entertainment and guest rooms, food cultivation and shared transport.

~ Sustainability would be built in from scratch, not bolted-on before the planning application. This project would seek to prevent rather than just to minimise problems. Different issues could be joined-up as win-win solutions that go beyond what is commonly assumed to be viable. For example on-site anaerobic digestion and CHP could turn much of the waste problem into a solution for the energy problem.

~ Most housing developments consider energy issues but neglect most of the potential for sustainable (closed-loop) resource management. Carbon neutral (no net CO2 emissions) and waste neutral (no net waste production) could both be achievable. The site could serve to demonstrate how attention to both waste and energy can result in numerous lifestyle enhancements and savings (contrary to common myths).

~ Research which would be carried out on this site has the potential to offer the first achievable correction to conventional market economics (which currently, if unintentionally, causes climate change and many other symptoms of unsustainability).

Cutting edge sustainable practice

Economic sustainability. Collaborative building and living is more viable than individual self-build.
~ Design work and other professional advice can be shared, especially if most of the units are similar.
~ Materials and supplies such as food can be bought in bulk.
~ Equipment such as heat/power plant and cars can be shared. Less equipment is needed and the unit capital cost is less.
~ Skills and effort are multiplied when swapped. Growing 20 lettuces isn't 4 times harder than growing 5 lettuces, especially when the surplus is swapped for a range of other items and help.
~ Many commercial ventures work better with some shared input. A guest house becomes less onerous when more people help run it, and when other ventures on site create a need for guest accomodation.
~ The above short-term savings can fund long-term sustainable investments (such as renewable technology).

Social sustainability. The neighbourliness needed on every street can be planned.
~ This community is being set up to work with current and future participants with collaborative values. Although the degree of collaboration is flexible, prospective participants who prefer a conventional arrangement will be uninterested, which allows participants to be self-selecting and the community mix to be broad.
~ The improved economic sustainability of the project and the security of a functioning community should offer residents the opportunity of a quality of life beyond the lures of over-working and materialism.
~ If supported by the local Parish, District and County Councils, we will seek financing for significant affordable housing for local people, including units to rent and small units.

Ecological sustainability. Public and political awareness has arrived - sufficient demonstration sites have not.
~ The site will serve as a practical demonstration of moving beyond carbon neutral (to net carbon removal) and waste neutral (by preventing more waste than is made). Such sites will be absolutely essential if the UK is to seriously address human-induced climate change. The government target of carbon neutral housing by 2016 is really only viable when demonstrations can be seen working soon.
~ Since technical solutions for energy generation are insufficient for genuine carbon neutrality, step changes in lifestyles are needed too. We will show how those changes, informed by systematic "precycling" (waste prevention) can inspire not lower but higher standards of living, as measured by what really matters to people.
~ One of the project participants is a sustainability professional, with experience ranging from simple practical measures to radical sustainable economics.
~ The site will draw upon the usual eco-housing checklists but go further by providing information and workshops to help others do more both in other housing developments and in regular streets.

This page was updated 15/01/06.

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