Could this Terrace Upcycle concept be key to solving UK housing crisis?

All manner of ideas have been proposed to address the UK housing crisis, but none have so far managed to resolve the multiple issues that have led to that crisis becoming so acute in the first place. Now, Adams+Collingwood Architects have revealed their innovative yet simple concept for transforming the UK’s housing market. The key? Traditional terraced homes.  

Since the elegant, desirable townhouses of the 17th century, England has embraced the terraced house in all its forms. It is this quintessentially English property that is at the heart of Adams+Collingwood Architects’ Terrace Upcycle concept.

Using a simple set of design rules, the Terrace Upcycle strategy creates two homes where previously there was one. It addresses not just the basic issue of the housing crisis (there not being enough homes) but also the issue of developments encroaching upon green belt land and the increasingly importance to focus on developing more homes as sustainably as possible.

“Lack of investment by successive governments has contributed to the worsening of the UK housing crisis over many decades. We can reasonably expect that this lack of investment will continue, so the Adams+Collingwood team set about developing a concept that was cost-effective and sustainable, as well as easy to apply to a wide variety of homes.”

Rob Adams, Adams+Collingwood Architects 

Based on a typical two-up-two-down terraced house, Adams+Collingwood’s flexible model creates modern and sustainable homes with an elongated lifecycle. The addition of a single storey with planted roof terrace accessed by stairs (in place of the typical pitched roof) and a full height, glazed extension to the rear generates 50% more living space. It also allows for the creation of a new, fully accessible ground floor garden flat suitable for an individual or couple, either as a starter home or an abode to retire.

While terraces can vary greatly in style, their common unifying elements mean that the Terrace Upcycle concept can be applied to the lion’s share of the UK’s terraced homes. Looking at Greater London alone, its application could result in the addition of approximately 1.7 million ground floor dwellings to London’s housing stock, all without any encroachment on green belt land and focused on the zero-carbon upgrade of all existing elements.

Adams+Collingwood have already completed their first Terrace Upcycle prototype, at Temperley Road in Clapham, London. The homeowners had outgrown their two-up-two-down Victorian terrace but didn’t want to move. As such, the Adams+Collingwood team worked with them to find the most cost-effective solution.  

They created a highly energy efficient and spacious family home that retained the familiar features of the traditional terraced home while generating 50% more space. To help the family take advantage of VAT savings, Adams+Collingwood opted to demolish and rebuild, rather than refurbish and extend, resulting in savings of over £100,000.

“With the local council’s support, we implemented the Terrace Upcycle concept at Temperley Road. Externally, we recreated a replica façade while keeping the traditional architectural typology of the ‘water closet wing’ to the rear. Internally, we designed a contemporary split-level plan that doubled the size of the original house on the same footprint.”

Rob Adams, Adams+Collingwood Architects

The resulting home has space for four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a formal sitting room, a utility room, plenty of storage and an open plan kitchen/diner opening onto the family garden. With a kitchen floor 450mm below the garden ground level, Adams+Collingwood introduced a wall to act as a seat for an additional outside room.

Not only did the work dramatically increase the space available within the home, it also addressed issues of poor insulation typical to Victorian terraces. The result knocked a third off the property’s electricity consumption and a fifth off its gas usage, despite the building being twice the size.

Completed in March 2019. Temperley Road highlights the huge potential of the Terrace Upcycle concept. With widespread local authority backing and a change to Permitted Development Rights to allow changes to terraced houses within the concept’s specific design parameters, Terrace Upcycle could truly be the key to solving the UK’s housing crisis, once and for all.