A team of London designers and a Guardian living scheme have teamed up together to develop a radical new design concept which is set to provide young people with an alternative to high rental rates in central London locations and re-assesses how vacant space can provide a sustainable approach to affordable living in city centres. Lowe Guardians is a property management company providing quality, affordable, inspiring accommodation for London’s young professionals by making the most out of vacant buildings and providing a place to live and thrive. At the same time, it provides property owners with a low-cost, professional and reliable solution to keeping their building secure. Lowe Guardians currently occupy many forms of vacant space; from offices, warehouses and pubs to police stations all on a short term basis.
Teaming up with Studio Bark, a pioneering architectural practice that delivers cost conscious environmental architecture, Lowe Guardians has developed a modular SHED concept which can be constructed in a day within an otherwise abandoned property, creating a high quality, affordable accommodation unit for young professionals, keyworkers and creatives.
Studio Bark first came into the public eye when their sustainable, private home ‘Periscope House’ was featured on Channel 4’s Grand Designs.
Recent research conducted by Lowe Guardians found that there are currently 600,000 empty properties across the UK that could be used for temporary residency using the new SHED solution. This includes thousands of prime sites in central London.
Tim Lowe, Director, Lowe Guardians, said: “The vacant buildings we assess can vary hugely in both condition and function. Sometimes the sheer or size or layout of properties means we are unable to take them on. Derelict warehouses remain a huge, untapped potential for us that could benefit Guardians and property owners alike.
“However, the reality is that turning vast, open spaces into private rooms for Guardians has always been both tricky and time consuming. Our aim is to help London professionals and keyworkers as much as we can and this means taking on larger vacant buildings that offer huge potential for providing quality accommodation.
“The SHED concept provides a safe, sustainable alternative for workers seeking short-term accommodation. In every site we occupy, we fit the spaces out to a habitable standard but this has historically created a considerable amount of waste; both financially and environmentally. We were looking for a solution which allowed us to much more creative with the space, and take everything with us when we went onto the next site.”
Each SHED takes one day to build and is made of lamb’s wool insulation, oriented strand board (OSB), and recycled polyester. The SHEDS come in varying sizes but start at around 120 sq ft.
As a flexible solution for the short term, and a responsible solution for the long term, the SHED provides an environmentally friendly, self-contained solution for each individual Guardian. It takes a day to build and dismantle and can be rebuilt on another premises which minimises waste. It can also be decorated or changed by Guardians that are passionate about the space they occupy.
Tim Lowe, said. “Many of our Guardians live fast-paced, transient lifestyles. In some ways, this makes it even more important that at the end of a busy day, they have a private space that is entirely personal to them. Our Guardians want to have an impact on the space they live and the bespoke nature of the shed allows them to do that.”
“Although our primary focus is on housing property Guardians in the vacant sites, there are multiple areas where the SHED concept can be used in and we see real scale in being able to use this system to make a genuine change in housing in London, the UK and the rest of the world, helping to alleviate homelessness and providing a solution to the refugee crisis.”
