The winners of the commendation award for a design competition asking emerging, local and BAME-led architects, designers, community groups and artists to propose innovative ideas for intergenerational living have been announced.
Adrian Hill Architects were announced as the successful entrant in Enfield Council’s Intergenerational Competition on Friday 9 October.
The contest sought to find innovative ways of encouraging intergenerational living, a concept, based on the idea that residents of different generations, such as school age children, young adults and older residents, live together and share resources, skills and offer each other support.
Intergenerational housing, both wider housing developments and individual households, can help to build more robust and resilient communities.
The Leader of Enfield Council and the chair of the judges panel, Cllr Nesil Caliskan, said: “I am delighted that Adrian Hill Architects received the commendation award, their entry was truly groundbreaking and showed a real insight into the opportunities and benefits that intergeneration living can unlock.
“Research shows that in the UK the number of homes with more than one generation living in them is on the rise, with the coronavirus outbreak acting as a significant factor in bringing families together.
“There are enormous social benefits from encouraging families to live together for longer but we need to make sure that the homes we provide are fit for purpose and meet the needs of our residents.
"This competition has enables us to harness the creativity and skills of the brightest minds to help tackle one of the single most difficult issues we face in providing housing today – how to build genuinely inclusive developments that create a real community spirit in which residents look out for each other."
The competition encouraged innovative thinking and high quality designs - of both individual homes and the housing development- to find ways of building stronger communities, tackling social isolation and bringing neighbours together so that ultimately, people across Enfield have access to a wider network of social support.
Judging Panel
1. Cllr Nesil Caliskan, Leader of Enfield Council (panel chair)
2. Geeta Nanda, MTVH Chief Exec
3. Tom Copley, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Residential Development
4. Sadie Morgan, Chair of Board of Director for the Quality of Life Foundation
5. Vincent Lacovara, Head of Planning, Enfield Council.
6. Paige Gaughan, Enfield’s Young People’s Forum Representative
7. Bindi Nagra, Director of Health and Adult Social Care, Enfield Council