The Prince’s Foundation’s inaugural Young Designer Competition, held last summer, aimed to give young designers the opportunity to explore the possibilities and benefits of creating beautiful, affordable and sustainable homes.
The winning team ‘Future Traditional’ - a partnership between London-based Douglas Ardern, Jamie Wallace and Ruaridh Inverarity - was judged to be the outstanding entry amongst nearly 40 other entries from all over the UK.
The competition brief reflected The Prince’s Foundation’s ethos of sustainability, practicality, durability, beauty and comfort in modern living. It called for designs for a ‘paired villa’; on one side the property is a two-bedroom house and, on the other, a flat above a shop. Other aspects of the brief included ceiling heights and windows that are taller than usual, which bring in more light, space, and air. Natural and/or recycled materials are used throughout, from recycled newspaper wall insulation to FSC timber to VOC-free paints. The House is meant to meet Level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes.
Drawing inspiration from a fusion of traditional and contemporary design, the winning design concept demonstrates a simple, yet tasteful structure that can be easily adapted to suit needs in a modern community. It features a pronounced double-gabled front, inspired by traditional vernacular buildings.
Team ‘Future Traditional’ commented: “House 'Future Traditional' could make a great street and a great home. By consolidating the stairs and the services at the side, the house is much simpler to construct whilst also making the internal arrangement entirely flexible for adaption to different needs or a changing household. House ‘Future Traditional’ reintroduces the chimney as a natural ventilation device and examines how traditional architecture uses proportion and simplicity to create a building that should stand the test of time.”
Inclusion of a shop in this year’s House represents an important principle of The Prince’s Foundation: the importance of the local shop, and the High Street, to our communities.
A Highgrove pop-up shop will occupy the shop space, where visitors to the house will be able to purchase a variety of home and lifestyle products inspired by the brand new spring collection from Highgrove gardens. All the proceeds from the sales will go to the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation.
Chief Executive of The Prince’s Foundation, Hank Dittmar, commented: "The innovative design submitted by team Future Traditional offered an excellent basis from which to build this year's Prince's House. We are particularly excited about this year's house as it features numerous additions, including a two-bedroom flat above a shop. We think this year's house is once again an excellent way to spread a positive message about the future of housing and sustainable living, and the important lessons we can learn from traditional ways of building."
All entrants to the competition had to be younger than 40 and were considered by a panel of judges chaired by HRH, The Prince of Wales, President of the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community. The panel also included, amongst others, Prince’s Foundation ambassador and property expert Kirstie Allsopp, Ellis Woodman, Editor of Building Design Magazine, as well as Hank Dittmar, Chief Executive of the Prince’s Foundation and Lee Newton, Director of Media 10.
The Prince of Wales founded The Prince’s Foundation for Building Community (formerly the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment) to ensure that people and communities are at the center of the design process. The charity aims to transform lives through engaging, educating and empowering people around issues of sustainable development.
Managing Director of Media 10, Lee Newton, commented: “The quality of entries into this year’s competition has been phenomenal and our chosen winners ‘Future Traditional’ responded to all levels of the brief, fitting in with the Prince’s House system, whilst showing a clear vision and achievable solution for mass produced community housing for the future.”
The team’s winning design will be the third Prince’s House to be built in partnership with the Ideal Home Show’s organisers Media 10 Ltd, to demonstrate to show visitors how sustainable living can be stylish, comfortable and affordable whilst also benefiting local communities.
For the first time, House Beautiful magazine will be styling the interior of the Prince’s House for this year’s Ideal Home Show, using selected products from some of the UK’s best local manufacturers and well-known retailers to create an atmosphere reflective of house’s aim to showcase sustainability, affordability and contemporary comfort.
As well as being exhibited to thousands of Ideal Home Show visitors this March, the winners received a £5,000 cash prize.
Following the show the house will be re-located to a real development site and will join the portfolio of Prince’s House system designs, currently being licensed to developers and house builders in the UK.
The five year partnership with the Prince’s Foundation for the Building Community and the Ideal Home Show launched in 2011 with the unveiling of the ‘Classic House’, which was followed by a second design in 2012 with the ‘ Prince’s Arts and Crafts House’.
The competition was organised as a joint project between The Prince’s Foundation and Media 10, the organisers of the Ideal Home Show, as part of a five-year partnership to support the development of sustainable building.
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