黑洞社区

Nearly two-thirds of the 100 finalists in a major ideas competition set up to tackle the housing crisis are architects.

They include Rogers Stirk Harbour, Farrells, Feilden Clegg Bradley, dRMM, Stitch, Levitt Bernstein, Bell Phillips, Mae, Denizen, Adams & Collingwood, Waugh Thistleton, Baca and the Manser Practice.

The New Ideas for Housing competition, run by New London Architecture, attracted 200 entries from 16 countries.

Well over half of the finalists were architects, with others including developers, planners, modular housing companies and estate agents. Several were shortisted twice (see box, below).

The 100 shortlisted ideas will go on display at the 黑洞社区 Centre next month, when 10 winners will be picked by a jury featuring Alison Brooks 鈥� who won BD鈥檚 2012 Architect of the Year Award for her housing projects 鈥� Bob Kerslake, chair of the London Housing Commission, and the capital鈥檚 deputy mayor for housing, Richard Blakeway.

The shortlisted ideas (see attached Word document) range from a whole new city beside the M25 to houses built over minor roads, on top of post-war housing estates and above civic buildings such as libraries and hospitals. Self-built communities, floating homes and pre-fabrication methods also featured in the successful entries.

The redevelopment of London鈥檚 suburbs was a strong theme with Alastair Parvin of Architecture 00 and Cass Cities tutor Adam Towle working with the WikiHouse Foundation to propose the 鈥渞ight to replace鈥�. This would enable suburban homeowners to demolish their properties to make way for dream homes 鈥� but only if they use half the space, freeing up land for extra houses.

More information on the competition can be accessed .