Multiple Choice: Online pattern books

'Ever since I have studied architecture the debate's been the same: architects say that what housebuilders produce is rubbish, while the housebuilders counter by saying they're providing what people want', architect and computational designer Michael Kohn of Slider Studio tells me. This conflict is now reaching a crescendo, with increasing pressure to build more housing to realise the government's target of providing three million new homes by 2020. This is a hefty number that will require a serious commitment to volume house building.

 

Party-Wall House This scheme frees the party wall from the vertical constraint, allowing for a more flexible way of living. Families, first-time buyers and older people can all share the same street space. Submitted by Lucy Anning on behalf of Howling Monkeys

Kohn, who founded Slider Studio in June 2006 to offer computational design services to architects, and now has clients including Mæ, Ian Ritchie and Make, has devised a strategy to address the issue of housing design quality. On the evening of 26 November 2007, a group of architects, academics and software boffins met in a basement room of University College London (UCL), where Kohn launched Youcanplan, an online competition to design adaptable housing types for volume housebuilding. The project is funded by Urban Buzz, an umbrella funding body championing 30 projects with the remit to 'develop new ways of delivering sustainable communities', ranging from attempts to slash carbon emissions in Victorian houses to a project collating all existing research on 'gender issues in the built environment'.

Modular House The proposal is based on a 3.6m structural module (approximately equivalent to the imperial dimension of 12 feet). It was chosen because it offers good room sizes for living rooms, kitchens, dining areas and bedrooms. Submitted by Clive Gray

Kohn's proposed model, which he has dubbed Enabled Self-Procurement (ESP) recommends that potential house-buyers purchase plots on a site owned by a developer that provides and maintains basic infrastructure. They can then buy houses tailored to their specification from a pattern book featuring 10 designs.

Atrea is a flat-pack plug-in sustainable home. We looked at the idea of a house being a consumable durable that consumers can buy. Submitted by Greg Keeffe on behalf of Greg Keeffe,Tom Jefferies, Chris Johnstone, Sarah Bolsover, and Gareth Llanwarne of Citylab, Manchester School of Architecture

Kohn's online competition, or 'co-opetition' as he dubs it, was to select these 10 designs. He developed software to host the project, with UCL and the University of East London bringing technical expertise and hardware to the project, while Urban Buzz provided a hosting site and a tranche of registered users who were a ready demographic for online voting.

Front-Row House We spent a lot of time looking at solar orientations, we wanted to create something that's flexible but not too wacky and, importantly, that we could envisage actually being built. Submitted by Dan Rigamonti and Ben Hopkins on behalf of Edward Cullinan Architects

In total, 38 practices – including Edward Cullinan Architects, Featherstone Associates and Ash Sakula – submitted entries.Voters could cast their ballot for five projects. If they entered the competition, they could vote for themselves but also had to vote for four others. 'We tried to simulate a method for identifying popular housing', says Kohn, 'Ultimately the idea is for real members of the public to pick from available types.'

Perception House The house design is rooted in the idea of perception. When you look at one house, your eye is drawn to two, which expands to three and so on. We wanted to blur the boundaries between units – we've looked at this at school [University of East London]. Submitted by Hassan Ali and Amanda Costa Thompson

The online gallery was visited by 722 users, of whom 539 voted, over seven days from 7-14 February. Voters were able to view explanatory text and standard information such as proposed method of construction; build cost; price; dimensions; and a projected rating on the Code for Sustainable Homes' scale of 1-6. Kohn says: 'We wanted to replicate the way consumers make decisions in the marketplace.' Ten winners were selected according to the number of votes.

Urban Vessel We looked at Georgian terrraces; where the plan creates a strong urban strategy. The scale feels quite grand – you read the individual home but you also read it as a palace block. Submitted by David Kohn on behalf of David Kohn Architects

Slider Studio's next task is to start building the winning housing types into its software. This should enable the adaptation of housing types without going through lengthy manual design modifications. It is hoped that the models can be quickly built and rendered within the Youcanplan console to the requirements of the user. The labour-intensive work of turning PDF outlines into 3D adaptable models will be completed by a mixture of students from UEL and modelling specialists from Slider Studio in conjunction with the winning architects. Winning entries will be added to a 3D virtual site, and Kohn hopes to unveil this during the London Festival of Architecture (20 June-20 July), with a live demonstration. Having selected a design, buyers will be able to choose their requirements – number of bedrooms, garaging etc. – from a list of predefined options and see their house take shape on a virtual plot.

Mansard House A modern-day interpretation of the traditional terraced house, the building form is enclosed by a folding pitched roof, which creates an integrated edge with the street. Submitted by Sarah Featherstone on behalf of Featherstone Associates

If the project lives up to Kohn's hopes, this virtual interface will make the leap to a new model for land procurement. 'At the moment there is no alternative to the volume housebuilders' product' he says. 'The problem is that house building is tied up with land deals and there is no real alternative to procurement other than speculative development.' As David Kohn of Youcanbuild winner David Kohn Architects (no relation) puts it: '[Enabled Self Procurement] makes sense, and you wonder why no one has done it before.'

Mixed-Cost Terrace House This is an alternative way of living where the housing plots are arranged to create a meeting space condition. Differentiation of housing tpes and cost is developed through size. Submitted by Monique Suksmaningsih

Whether the 10 winning designs can develop into something which will be played out on an actual plot depends on whether or not Kohn is successful in finding a partnering developer. He has two months to do so; after that the funding from UrbanBuzz will cease.

Lifecycle House By creating a large house on a small ootprint the house can grow up with the family; the idea is to extend the occupancy and by consequence the investment in the property and its local environment. Submitted by Geraghty Taylor Architects

'We have had interest from English Partnerships', Kohn says. 'As our project develops we have more collateral to convince people. We are doing quite a hard thing – turning procurement on its head.' And how well is it going? Kohn won't be drawn. 'I don't think we can make conclusions at the moment', he says.

Find out more about Enabled Self Procurement at http://esp-sim.org