Caroline Dove, the author of Radical Housing, is an architect and Partner of HTA Design LLP, with over 30 years’ experience of collaborating with communities to design sustainable places to live. She leads multi-disciplinary teams responsible for designing and delivering a wide range of community-led regeneration and refurbishment projects, housing for older people, custom-build housing and local authority housebuilding programmes.
Now in its seventh year, the RIBAJ/Norbord Europe (now part of West Fraser) competition is designed to encourage architects to push the creative boundaries when considering the use of SterlingOSB Zero the only OSB panel on the market which is net carbon negative. The competition, where the winners enjoy cash prizes, industry acknowledgment, and much coverage in RIBA’s media channels, has seen some incredibly innovative creations in its time; each year poses a different challenge which is designed to reflect real-life topics in the architectural world.
2017’s competition engendered something quite different too; the publication of a beautiful book, Radical Housing by Caroline Dove.
Caroline explains the story behind the book idea:
“It was a panel discussion at the 2017 awards, which asked for designs for affordable multigenerational homes, that led to the idea of writing this book, so thanks are due to both West Fraser (Norbord) and RIBA for the original inspiration. The challenge was to design a 30m² multigenerational home, an affordable, practical and scalable solution to the need for homes for young and old who could benefit from living both independently and with their families. This led us to thinking about the opportunities for sharing more, using resources wisely and supporting communities to develop in the way they would like to live. Designing places for all generations to live sustainably, encouraging social interaction and the development of strong communities is a collective endeavour and has inspired a wide range of successful places which are explored in this book.”
Let’s hope the competition continues to inspire in the years to come!
Free samples of Sterling OSB Zero products can be ordered here. For further information, call 01786 812 921 or visit Uk.westfraser.com