Dezeen MINI Living Future Urban Home 2019: plan for flood-proof Georgian terrace houses named as the winning vision for new city homes in 100 years’ time

UK architects and designers took the top three places in an international contest to imagine the future of city living.
1/24
Barbara Chandler25 January 2019

London has scooped the top three prizes in the Dezeen MINI Living Future Urban Home competition. And today we exclusively reveal who these London winners are, with more details on the dezeen.com design news website.

Dezeen was set up in 2006 by multi award-winning journalist Marcus Fairs and now has 2.5 million “unique visitors” each month.

MINI Living, set up in 2016, is an initiative by the Mini car people, hatching city-based ideas for “creative use of space”. Their motto is “big life on a small footprint”.

The contest asked for a vision of new city homes in 100 years’ time. What will be the challenges, and how will our homes cope?

There were more than 400 entries, 50 of which came from the UK.

Marcus Fairs is not surprised: “London is home to more world-class architects, top designers and emerging talents than any other city,” he asserts. And the winner is...

1. The D*Haus Company

The Kentish Classic by The D*Haus Company, a practice in north London, self-described as a “collective of architects, artists, sculptors, web developers and product designers”.

Masterminds were David Ben-Grűnberg and Daniel Woolfson, both 35, plus architect Carmen Gallano, 32, from Barcelona. They win £5,000.

Their proposal, unexpectedly traditional, resembles homes in Leverton Street in Kentish Town near their new studio in Crouch End, a particularly pretty Georgian terrace.

The D*Haus Company: the winning project references the pretty pastel houses of Leverton Street in Kentish Town

“We think period properties will always be desirable, says Ben-Grűnberg, “so we rejected any concept of a futuristic pod.”

Their little houses are surrounded by waterways instead of roads because river levels are inexorably rising, say the designers, adding that London could become like Venice.

Their suggested façade is CNC-cut from stained plywood and raised on a flood-proof 3D-printed platform.

Marcus Fairs, chief judge on a panel of four, says: “The Kentish Classic is unexpectedly nostalgic, and avoids apocalyptic visions of the future. It is simple, colourful and optimistic. It assumes period homes will be as popular in the future as they undoubtedly are today.”

Adds co-judge, Oke Hauser, creative leader of MINI Living: “Rising sea levels will be one of the biggest spatial challenges of our urban future.”

2. Studio McLeod​

Coming second and winning £3,000, architectural practice Studio McLeod imagined small, sculptural homes that can fly from city to city on heated balloons, docking at will. They called this Hour Glass.

Project leader Duncan McLeod, 44, worked with Olga Baker of Ekkist, 28, a chartered surveyor and a faculty member of the International WELL Building Institute.

Humans, they say, have been nomads for 99 per cent of our known existence, only “settling” about 10,000 years ago.

Notwithstanding, by 2050, nearly 70 per cent of the world’s population will live in cities, and the project envisages friendly technology harnessed for a utopia of wellbeing and happiness.

“We will be virtually present anywhere. With computer-aided thought and AI assistance, we will share mental capacity, performing multiple roles to benefit society.” Homes that produce, recycle and store energy and water will be infinitely flexible.

3. Maria Vergopoulou

In third place, winning £2,000 comes Maria Vergopoulou, 27, who grew up in Greece but has lived in London for nine years, finishing her architectural training at Westminster University.

Now she lives in north-west London in a shared Victorian flat and works for a prestigious London firm of architects.

Maria Vergopoulou's visionary plan for a micro home made from bioplastic fibres won third prize
Maria Vergopoulou

Her visionary concept, Cocoon BioFloss, developed while at college, is a micro home made from fine bioplastic fibres, which people could make themselves from four domestic ingredients: starch, glycerine, vinegar and water.

She has used a home candyfloss machine as a 3D printer, replacing sugar with plastic filaments.

“When heated and spun, the plastic becomes thin, floss-like fibres. They loop up with each other, forming a cocoon.” She stresses that her new material will easily degrade when discarded — you can even compost it.

Vergopoulou says: “Designers have a responsibility. We must explore materiality and technology in response to the environmental issues of our age.”;

Scroll through the gallery above to see all 15 of the shortlisted projects. Visit dezeen.com for full details.