Healthy Homes for All – Designing and testing a healthy prototype for social housing

The project sought to answer a key research question: i.e. how can we ensure that the new housing we are providing for those on lower incomes will be safe and healthy to live in? Using a design prototype which had been initiated in previously funded research investigations, for a site in Upton Gardens in East Ham, the purpose of this Grand Challenges project was to showcase a method for how to easily and quickly model and test any proposed housing scheme using a range of readily available proprietary software. As well as testing our own design prototype and demonstrating its health and well-being benefits compared to the typical new dwellings being built currently in the UK, our project also proposes a methodological approach which could be used by all architects who are designing social/affordable housing schemes.