Previously-thought “undevelopable” 60s and 70s office blocks will gain a new lease of life under a green concept inspired by life on the blue stuff.
Graham Clark, Director of Architecture at design and construction consultancy McBains Cooper, has developed a highly-cost-effective 21 square metre compact apartment based on the accommodation demands of sailing yachts.
The ready-built, ready-wired and ready-plumbed apartments – costing “the very low end of five figures” - are designed to “plug into” redundant and inefficient 60s and 70s office blocks, providing near instant accommodation for students and for workers who spend weekdays near their workplaces in city centres.
“But as much as we’re looking at giving second life to our old buildings, we are looking to develop designs which will make possible second, third or even fourth lives for future designs being developed today,” said Graham Clark.
“It has become something of a competition to design the smallest possible accommodation with the most possible features, but they’re never realistic, and can be immensely claustrophobic regardless of how clever they are.
“While developing our design we took inspiration from yacht interiors where the compactness never compromises the feeling of space or quality.
“The best-packaged compact accommodation is in sailing yachts – that sort of accommodation has to work on a very practical level, with no complex or over-clever design, and that’s what’s put the wind in the sails of this idea.
“There’s an optimum size for a compact apartment - 21 square metres - which will suite many use types, such as apart-hotels, student accommodation and even residential use.
“Our compact apartment is arranged so that each space has realistic multiple use - a bit like a Swiss army knife - and is a complete room. 60s and 70s office blocks are actually perfect and rife for this sort of development.
“I must be the only man in the construction sector looking for the worst of 60s and 70s blocks - but not to knock them down. But I may also be the only man in construction who can see a second or even third life for them.
“As business and population centres shift – sometimes by as little as half a mile in a major city – so does the demand for accommodation. As a city changes, so demand changes for hotel rooms, student digs, key worker housing.
“Recent news around A-level results suggests that more student places and more accommodation will be needed, and it could be provided by those 60s and 70s blocks and our plug-in 21 square metre apartments.
“But there is another crucial area of opportunity. As major events come to the UK – the Olympics and other big sporting occasions – there is a requirement for cost-effective and flexible temporary accommodation for site workers, competitors and so on, but only over a finite period.
“What to do with this accommodation? Well, the answer could be to build into the design and construction schedule a factor allowing the swift conversion from competitor accommodation to student or key worker accommodation.”
McBains Cooper has regional headquarters in London (head office), Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester, Oxford, Windsor, Lima (Peru) and Mexico City, with associate offices in Belfast and Dublin. |
