Episode Information Grand Designs: The Brighton Co-Op

Date Published:

19/05/2008

This project was a cooperative venture - 10 families each put in 30 hours construction work per week. In the process they earned the right to live in the houses at a greatly subsidised rent and, they hope, also created a ready community in an ideal setting, just on edge of the South Downs near Brighton.

Paul and his partner Jenny provided the impetus for the project. The couple had been living on the road as travellers and wanted to provide more security for their young daughter. A housing association bought the land from the council for £58,000. Paul then worked with the association to put the co-operative together. All the members were people on the council's housing list.

Each house cost about £60,000 to build, about the same as one made of brick and mortar, but this housing development was designed to offer the residents a quality of life unparalleled on any housing estate.

The houses are based on the system pioneered by Walter Segal (see Suppliers page), which is intended to allow anyone to build their own home with no prior experience. The design of the houses, which rest on stilts, was perfectly suited to the steeply sloping site. The method is very ecologically sensitive and very simple. Wall panels are made on the ground and erected side by side. The structure is then braced diagonally, and then the roof goes on. The roofs in this case were topped with grass, so they blend into the surroundings and reduce heat loss.

Apart from the concrete plinth, the entire structure was made of softwood, which is sustainable. The co-op also decided to clad their buildings in native timber, allowing them to personalise the outside of their homes with paint and stain. The planners only allowed them to build on one storey, which further simplified construction.

Progress was slow - after 14 months it looked as if the whole project would take at least another year. So to help morale, and to show what the end result might be like, one house was finished in advance of the others, Kevin joining the team to decorate it.

When Grand Designs returned to the site, nearly a year and a half later, all the houses had been finished - and with their colourful paint schemes, weatherboarding and wide verandas, they look rather like an informal collection of beach houses. Internally, the homes are also very individual. Because the walls are not load-bearing, each resident was able to decide on their own interior layout.

'We were a bit fed up with the build in the end,' Tony told Kevin. 'It was going on and on and on, and the last stages - decorating and so on - seemed to take forever.' But he had no doubt that it was all worth it. Other residents agree, and say that the process of building their homes has cemented their community.