JTP Wins Sunday Times British Homes Award for Resilient Home of the Future
< View all news

JTP Wins Sunday Times British Homes Award for Resilient Home of the Future

Published on 18 October 2016

JTP is delighted to announce we have won the British Homes Awards Resilient Homes competition. ‘A Home for All Seasons’, the design by JTP in collaboration with environmental specialist Ed Barsley, secured the highest number of votes from the public to emerge as the winner from the pool of five finalists.

The annual competition stimulates the development of innovative systems to drive a process of change, and this year challenged architects to create a home capable of withstanding flooding and other natural hazards.

The British Homes Awards recognise the talent, effort and innovation of architects, designers, housebuilders, developers and affordable housing providers, and celebrate the quality of the homes and communities they create.

A Home for All Seasons focuses on providing long-term protection, comfort and independence for residents through resilience, rather than resistance, to extreme weather conditions, and adapting to inevitable changes throughout the course of their lives, and beyond.

The home is designed to anticipate extreme weather in advance, both through integrated technology – such as the smartphone app which warns residents of approaching floods, enabling them to move their cars to designated safe spaces on higher ground – and simple, low tech features, like the positioning of the living areas and power utilities on the first floor, and the versatile plan that can easily adapt to accommodate the changing needs of its residents and its context.

With a recent national government review of flood resilience indicating 20-30% more extreme rainfall than before, with insufficient allowance for preventative measures, we recognise that it is more important now than ever to design for resilience, not only in a physical sense but social and economic resilience too, such as family growth and changing energy costs.

JTP is now working with BRE to develop the Resilient Home into a prototype to be built, and we will share further updates on this exciting process in the coming weeks.

Rebecca Taylor, JTP partner leading the design team, said “We are absolutely thrilled to have won the Resilient Homes design competition, and are honoured to be associated with the prestigious British Homes Awards.

We believe that A Home for All Seasons is buildable, cost effective and has the potential to gain real traction with developers looking to provide innovative, future-proofed new homes.”

The British Homes Awards design competition was run in partnership with BRE, NHIC, The Building Centre and media partners the Architect’s Journal and The Sunday Times.