WINNER ANNOUNCED!

After much deliberation, NaCSBA’s expert team of judges has announced the winner of 2017’s Shoestring competition.

London architecture firm Inglis Badrashi was named the winner for ‘The Apple Yard’ – a retirement home scheme with communal facilities, allotments, greenhouses and an orchard in the centre. Each open-plan home has a pyramid shaped roof with one wall that is fully glazed, overlooking a small private garden area.
Read more about the project here>>

Click here to see the six finalists>>

2017’s competition outline

In mainland Europe scores of modestly priced retirement communities have been built by local people who have formed a group, commissioned an architect to design what they want and then hired a contractor to construct the homes for them. The properties are tailored to each resident’s requirements and the communities encourage interaction, healthier lifestyles and the mutual support of each other, thereby reducing the need for social care.

NasCSBA thinks it’s about time we saw more projects like this happening in the UK. That’s why our annual Self Build on a Shoestring competition – launched on the 6th May at Grand Designs Live – challenges designers to devise an innovative low cost ‘granny annexe’. And the designers also have to show how 30 of the homes could be grouped together to create an innovative retirement community.

The individual homes must be constructed for less than £40,000, or the whole community of 30 homes – which must also include a range of shared/community facilities – has a maximum budget of £1.5m.

Three of the UK’s top TV presenters have agreed to be Judges for this year’s ‘Shoestring’ competition including George Clarke, Piers Taylor and Charlie Luxton. Other judges include design and self build experts and the consultant who helped set up the first project like this in the UK (the ‘New Ground’ scheme in North London, which opened this year and provides 22 new homes for single elderly women).

The rules

Anyone can enter the competition – architects, designers, modular construction specialists, timber framing experts, custom build developers, innovation or technical gurus, or members of the public. Entrants need to provide good technical information (and robust costs data) together with high quality visual material, so non-professionals are encouraged to team up with others to ensure they match the high standards.

A full Brief for the competition can be downloaded by clicking the banner above (or here), and the deadline for submissions is 21st September 2016. The winner will be announced at the Grand Designs Live Exhibition at the NEC in October, where there will also be a display of the top finalists.

Further information

To find out more about past shoestring competitions, follow the links below:

2013 Design a home for a family of four

2014 Design a 20 home development in the city

2015 Design an adaptable starter home

2016 Design a low cost starter home

Back to National Custom & Self Build Week homepage?

Second time around…

National Custom & Self Build Week 2014 took place from 3-11 May when another exciting series of events helped promote custom and self build and encouraged more people to turn their dreams into a reality.

During the run up to the Week, we announced that there had been a year-on-year increase in the British public’s intention to get a custom designed home built for themselves. That was the result of an exclusive Ipsos MORI poll commissioned which marked the launch of the 2014 Week.

The first few days of the Week got off to a blistering start with lots of press coverage: a whole-page article in the Sunday Times, plus extensive coverage in the Telegraph, the Guardian, The Independent and the Daily Mail. On the evening of Wednesday 7th May, for the first time ever, MPs organised an adjournment debate on self and custom build in the House of Commons, as part of the Week. There were big crowds at the various debates at Grand Designs Live with Kevin McCloud, George Clarke and Charlie Luxton all being involved in events to do with the Week.

The Week came to a grandstand finish with the launch of the second ‘Self Build on a Shoestring’ competition. The challenge was all about building a group of self build homes together in an urban environment. It was open to everybody, and there was a £5000 prize fund.

During the launch of the Week Kris Hopkins MP, the 2014 Minster for Housing, said: “The events that are organised during the Week will showcase the many ways people have turned their dream of building their own home into a reality. All the evidence shows that there are millions of people who want to be involved in building a home for themselves in the UK”.

British architect and television presenter George Clarke added: “Self building your own home has to be one of the most rewarding things you can do in life. It’s an opportunity for people to create something truly unique, building that that they can truly call their very own.”

What do you think we should ask the politicians to do to boost housebuilding?

To help launch National Custom & Self Build Week 2014, NaCSBA teamed up with the organisers of the Grand Designs Live exhibition to ask a selection of the UK’s leading housing experts for their suggestions for what could be done to dramatically increase the level of new housebuilding in the UK.

With the 2015 General Election looming we were keen to collate together the best ideas so the politicians from all parties can consider working them into their own manifestos. Not surprisingly, there was strong support for more custom and self build housing.

Read the press release HERE, or download the full Housing Manifesto HERE.

And if you have strong views or innovative suggestions of your own let us know, by sending an e-mail to chair@nacsba.org.uk.

Back to National Custom & Self Build Week homepage?

What did it achieve and what did we learn?

As the first-ever National Self Build Week closed, thoughts turned to what it achieved and what was learnt from organising it. NaCSBA’s then-Chair Ted Stevens reflected on a very frantic few days in early May 2013…

“National Self Build Week 2013 achieved three main things. Firstly, it raised the profile of the self/custom build housing sector, with lots of media coverage in the national press, and on TV and radio. One of our aims was to showcase the many ways its now possible to deliver self or custom build homes, and – in a modest way – we did this. The media exposure we secured and the debates and events we arranged explained many of the ways its now possible to get a home delivered. The Week was also used as the platform to launch a new guide aimed at public sector organisations. This is available free to download from NaCSBA’s website and it showcases 16 different ways councils and housing associations can encourage more self/custom building. Much of the exposure we got was down to the fact that we teamed up with the organisers of Grand Designs Live – so we had people like Kevin McCloud plugging the Week on TV and on the radio, and at a number of events he was personally involved in. George Clarke, Charlie Luxton and Tom Dyckhoff also helped raise the profile of the sector too. In time this media exposure can only be good for the sector – boosting awareness and understanding among would-be self builders, and generating more enquiries and interest.

Secondly, we secured lots of support from the Government, and in particular from the Planning Minister Nick Boles. When we launched the Week we managed to persuade the Department for Communities and Local Government to officially support it. The department also agreed to send along various ministers to participate in some of the key debates that we had set up. Housing Minister Mark Prisk helped us launch the Week on May 4th. And Planning Minister Nick Boles contributed to a very positive debate about the planning challenges faced by self builders on May 7th. Until now the industry has not had much contact with the top planning team at the department. But it was clear, during the debate that the Planning Minister is very keen to support the growth of the sector, and he stressed that he would be doing a number of things to help reduce red tape and make it easier for people to find building plots and secure planning permissions in the future. We also met Greg Barker, the Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change.

Thirdly, it provided us with a platform to launch a range of new initiatives. These include the ‘Self Build on a Shoestring’ competition (dozens of people have already registered to enter this), and our new ‘Need-a-Plot’ facility on The Self Build Portal (this is a fantastic way of would-be self builders finding sites or teaming up with others to get group self build projects underway). Later this week we will also be launching a special ‘match-making database’ that helps put large housebuilders in touch with special self/custom build developers and enabling consultants. And towards the end of May we will also have a special guide available for small local builders that explains the various ways they can get involved in facilitating more self/custom build homes (and the returns they can get).

Of course, if we’d had more time and more resources we could have done a lot more. But for our first year it seems to have been reasonably successful.

At a local and regional level it was good to get a fair range of events listed in the Week’s activities. These including a large workshop for would-be self builders in Leeds (organised by the city council and the Homes and Communities Agency), and a series of busy tours of a pioneering self build community project in Bristol (including one that involved a big delegation from the Nigerian Government). There were also many smaller events including open days arranged by suppliers active in the sector in Wales, Essex, Derbyshire and Surrey. And a number of organisations promoted special offers during the Week.

NaCSBA wants to send a big ‘Thank You’ to everyone who organised a special event as part of the week. We also want to thank E.ON, who very kindly paid for the printing of our ‘Action Handbook’, the team at the Department for Communities and Local Government, the three main self build magazines who helped us promote the activities, and to the organisers of Grand Designs Live.”

Ted Stevens, 13.05.13

National Custom & Self Build Week is an annual event that takes place in May and heralds an exciting series of events to help promote custom and self build and encourage more people to turn their dreams of building their own home into a reality.

National Custom & Self Build Week 2015

The 2015 event – organised by Grand Designs Live and the National Custom & Self Build Association (NaCSBA) – took place from the 2nd to the 10th May and was centred around a multitude of events taking place at London’s ExCeL centre.

The Week included the launch of the 2015 Self Build on a Shoestring ideas competition where the challenge is to design co-housing in a rural situation.

Plus, NaCSBA’s Research & Development team – comprising former Chair Ted Stevens and senior DCLG policy adviser Mario Wolf – revealed its research on the best self build projects around the country.

And, on General Election Day, a panel of influential spokespeople from NaCSBA – Marketing Representative Jason Orme, CEO Tim Doherty and Chair Michael Holmes – discussed with Kevin McCloud how self build might fit into the policies of the new Government (pictured, above).